The Syllable: Views and Facts 9783110806793, 9783110162745

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The Syllable

1749

1999

?

Studies in Generative Grammar 45

Editors

Jan Köster Henk van Riemsdijk

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

The Syllable Views and Facts

Edited by

Harry van der Hulst Nancy A. Ritter

w DE

G

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin • New York

1999

Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.

The series Studies in Generative Grammar was formerly published by Foris Publications Holland.

® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The syllable : views and facts / edited by Harry van der Hulst, Nancy A. Ritter. p. cm. - (Studies in generative grammar ; 45) Chiefly rev. papers originally presented at the International Conference on the Phonology of the World's Languages, held June 21-24, 1996, Pézenas, France. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 3-11-016274-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Syllabication. I. Hulst, Harry van der. II. Ritter, Nancy Α., 1959III. International Conference on the Phonology of the World's Languages (1996 : Pézenas , France) IV. Series. P236.S94 1999 414—dc21 99-26547 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The syllable : views and facts / ed. by Harry VanDerHulst ; Nancy A. Ritter. - Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1999 (Studies in generative grammar ; 45) ISBN 3-11-016274-1

© Copyright 1999 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printing: WB-Druck, Rieden am Forggensee. Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer GmbH, Berlin. Printed in Germany.

Preface and acknowledgments Most chapters in this collection started life as papers that were presented at the International Conference on the Phonology of the World's Languages in Pézenas (France), June 21-24, 1996, sponsored by the University of Salford, Oxford University Press, and the city of Pézenas. Jacques Durand was the main organizer of this conference and we wish to thank him for allowing us to invite the participants from 'his' conference to contribute to the present volume. Subsequently, we invited a number of further linguists to extend the scope of our project. We are grateful for the willingness of all the authors to contribute their work to this book, and to Jan Koster & Henk van Riemsdijk for adopting it in their SGG series. We also wish to thank Anke Beck from Mouton for her support. All original papers have been extensively rewritten before being submitted as chapters for this volume. The initial submissions were thoroughly reviewed by external readers, as well as by the editors of this volume. We wish to thank all the reviewers who remain anonymous. Another review round resulted when all contributors were asked to review at least one of the papers of a fellow contributor. The final versions of all chapters were submitted for publication in 1998. We thank various other people for helping us in the review process: Marc van Oostendorp, Gertjan Postma and Rob Goedemans. Rob also gave us valuable assistance in other phases of the editorial process. Jeroen van de Weijer has done a wonderful job in typesetting the chapters and in helping us to prepare the indices. We also wish to thank Rose Ritter and Paulus-Jan Kieviet for helping with the final editing phase.

February 1999, The Editors

Contents

Contributors

xi

Abbreviations

xv

1 Introducing the volume Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter

1

Part I: General Issues 2 Theories of the syllable Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter

13

3 Morpheme structure constraints and the phonotactics of Dutch Geert Booij

53

4 Syllables in Danish Hans Basboll

69

5 The syllable in Hindi Manjari Ohala

93

Part II: Government Phonology 6 Head-Driven Phonology Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter

113

7 The syllable in German: Exploring an alternative Wiebke Brockhaus

169

8 Consonant clusters and governing relations: Polish initial consonant sequences Eugeniusz Cyran ά Edmund Gussmann

219

viii

Contents

9 Hungarian syllable structure: Arguments for/against complex constituents Miklós Törkenczy & Péter Siptár

249

10 The Latin syllable Giovanna Marotta

285

11 Syllables in Western Koromfe John R. Rennison

311

Part III: Moraic Phonology 12 The syllable in Luganda phonology and morphology Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

349

13 Kihehe syllable structure David Odden & Mary Odden

417

14 Dschang syllable structure Steven Bird

447

15 The syllable in Chinese San Duanmu

477

16 The syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic (San c ânï and Cairene) Janet C.E. Watson 17 The Romansch syllable Jean-Pierre Montreuil

501

527

Part IV: Optimality Theory 18 Syllables and phonotactics in Irish Máire Ni Chiosáin 19 A preliminary account of some aspects of Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure Norval Smith

551

577

Contents

20 Quantity in Norwegian syllable structure Gjert Kristoffersen

ix

631

Part V: Other approaches 21 A syllable-level feature in Finnish Richard Ogden

651

22 Sievers' Law in Vedic Andrea Calabrese

673

Indexes Index of authors

753

Index of languages

763

Index of subjects

767

Contributors Hans Basbell

Eugeniusz Cyran

Institute of Language and Communication University of Southern Denmark Main Campus: Odense University Campusvej 55 DK - 5230 Odense M Denmark hba@language. ou. dk hba@language. sdu. dk

Dept. of Celtic Catholic University of Lublin Al. Raclawickie 14 Lublin 20-950 Poland [email protected]

Steven Bird Linguistic Data consortium University of Pennsylvania 3615 Market Street, Suite 200 Philadelphia, PA 19104-2608 USA [email protected]

Geert Bootj Faculteit der Letteren Vrije Universiteit De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands [email protected]

Wiebke Brockhaus Department of German University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M l 3 9PL UK [email protected]

Andrea Calabrese Department of Linguistics University of Connecticut 341 Mansfield Rd. U-145 Storrs, CT 06269 USA [email protected]

San Duanmu Program in Linguistics University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285 USA [email protected]

Edmund Gussmann Dept. of Celtic Catholic University of Lublin Al. Raclawickie 14 Lublin 20-950 Poland [email protected]

Harry van der Hulst Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics Leiden University P.O. Box 9515 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands hulst@rullet. leidenuniv.nl

Larry M. Hyman Department of Linguistics University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 USA [email protected]

xii

Contributors

Francis X. Katamba Department of Linguistics and Modem English Language Bowland College Lancaster University Lancaster LAI 4YT UK [email protected]

David Odden Mary Odden Department of Linguistics Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210 USA

Gjert Kristoffersen Dept. of Scandinavian languages and literature University of Bergen Norway [email protected]

Richard Ogden Department of Language & Linguistic Science University of York Heslington York YOlO 5DD UK [email protected] Manjari Ohala Department of Linguistics and Language Development San Jose State University San Jose, CA 95192 USA [email protected]

Giovanna Marotta Department of Linguistics University of Pisa Via S. Maria 36 I - 56126 Pisa Italy [email protected] Jean-Pierre Montreuil Department of French and Italian The University of Texas, Austin Austin, TX 78712-1197 USA [email protected] Máire Ni Chiosáin Department of Linguistics John Henry Newman Building University College Dublin Belfield Dublin 4 Ireland [email protected]. ie

odden@ling. ohio-state. edu

John R. Rennison Institut für Sprachwissenschaft Berggasse 11 1090 Vienna Austria [email protected] Nancy A. Ritter Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics Leiden University P.O. Box 9515 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands [email protected]

Contributors

xiii

Péter Siptár Department of English Linguistics and Theoretical Linguistics Programme Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Ajtósi Dürer sor 19-21 Budapest H - 1146 Hungary [email protected]

Miklòs Törkenczy Department of English Linguistics and Theoretical Linguistics Programme Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Ajtósi Dürer sor 19-21 Budapest H - 1146 Hungary [email protected]

Norval Smith Department of Theoretical Linguistics University of Amsterdam Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics (HIL) Spuistraat 210 1012 VT Amsterdam The Netherlands [email protected]

Janet C. E. Watson Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies South End House South Road University of Durham Durham DH1 4QU UK [email protected]

Abbreviations 1 sg 3 sg

first person singular third person singular

A abl. acc. Act AO ASP attr. form aug.

appendix ablative accusative active aorist aspect attributive form augment

Β

Brahmanas

C C caus. cl. CL

coda consonant causative class / class suffix compensatory lengthening collective comparative conjunction coronal closed syllable shortening

coll. comp. conj. Cor CSS

D/d dat. deci. def. dim. Dor DP DP dur.

dependent dative declarative definite diminutive dorsal Declarative Phonology Dependency Phonology durative

ECP

Empty Category Principle empty nucleus essive expressive

EN ess. exp.

F, F2 f./fem. fam. FEN FPA Fr. fut. FV G GD gen. GL GP GPSG

today future general future feminine familiar word-final empty nucleus Firthian Prosodie Analysis French future Final Vowel

hum.

glide gerundive genitive government licensing Government Phonology Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar head heavy high tone Head-dependent asymmetry Head-Driven Phonology Head-Feature Convention constituent (nonspecific) Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar human

I id. imp. imperf. in prep. ind. ind. fut. indef. inf. inst.

high vocoid idem imperative imperfective in preparation indicative indicative future indefinite infinitive instrumental

H H H HDA HDP HFC HP HPSG

xvi

Abbreviations

INT interrog. 10 IPA IPV

intensive interrogative interonset government International Phonetic Alphabet imperative

L L Lab LAR loe LVS

light low tone labial laryngeal locative Leftward Vowel Spread

m./masc. MD MHG ML ms MSC

masculine middle Middle High German magic licensing milliseconds Morpheme Structure Constraint

Ν NAS NEG neut. NHD NHG nom.

nucleus nasalization negative neuter Non-High Delinking New High German nominative

0 0 obs OCP OHG OM OT

obstruent onset obstruent Obligatory Contour Principle Old High German object marker Optimality Theory

P2 PB perf. PF PFF PG

general past Proto Bantu perfective perfect Phrase-final filling proper government

pi. PP PR PRC pres. prêt. prog. pron. PS PT

plural past participle present Plural Rounding constraint present preterite progressive aspect pronoun passive participle

R refi. rei. rem. RP RV RVS

Rhyme reflexive relative remote past Received Pronunciation Rigveda Rightward Vowel Spread

S s./sg. s.o. SB SESE

SSM sth. subj. syl.

sonorant singular someone subjunctive Standard English of southern England spread glottis singular subject marker sonorant The Sound Pattern of English Sonority Sequencing Generalization Sonority Syllable Model something subject syllable

TBU TM trans.

tone-bearing unit tense marker transitive

UG

Universal Grammar

SG sgSM son SPE SSG

Abbreviations

UH

Ultimate Head

V v. v.f. vb. VH voc. voc. voi

vowel verb vocal folds verb vowel harmony vocoid vocative voiced

xvii

1

Introducing the volume

Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter

1. Goal of the volume

This collection offers a fairly exhaustive presentation of current day approaches to the phonotactic or syllabic organization of words, the 'views', as well as a rich display of the syllabic organization of some 20 languages, the 'facts'. With respect to representational issues, we find adherents of onset-rhyme models, using the approach of Government Phonology or 'X-bar' models, and mora models. Practically all contributors adopt a constraint-based approach, either in the context of models that appeal to language-specific constraint ranking (such as in Optimality Theory) or models that use no ranking of inviolable constraints i.e. Firthian-Declarative Phonology and Government-based analyses. Issues of surface syllabification and phonetic implementation are also addressed. In the next section, we provide brief summaries of the chapters. We refer to chapter 2 for a discussion of the various themes that are addressed in the chapters in this volume.

2. Summaries of the contributions1

2.1. Introduction In this section we present short summaries of the chapters. The second digit in the numbering of the subsections is also the number of the relevant chapter.

2.2. Theories of the syllable (Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter) The goal of this chapter is to discuss some general issues in syllable theory. Section 2 presents some facts that any theory of syllable structure or phonotactics must address, specifically involving complex consonant clusters. Section 3 discusses a number of approaches to syllable structure, comparing them and showing the equivalencies and real differences. In section 4, the authors address

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

a number of fundamental questions regarding the level of grammar at which phonotactics must be stated.

2.3. Morpheme structure constraints and the phonotactics of Dutch (Geert Booij) This chapter deals with the relation between conditions on prosodie structure and phonotactics, based on an analysis of a number of phonotactic patterns in Dutch. It is shown that next to the syllable, higher prosodie constituents such as the foot and the prosodie word also play a role in accounting for phonotactic patterns. Also Booij demonstrates that some co-occurrence constraints are purely linear, and do not have to do with specific prosodie constituents. Since prosodie conditions are output conditions they cannot function as conditions on the segmental make-up of morphemes, that is, patterns in the segmental makeup of morphemes cannot be expressed directly in the grammar, but are the consequences of lexicon optimization. However, it appears that there are also phonotactic regularities that can only be stated at the underlying level, which suggests that there remains a role for morpheme structure conditions. These morpheme structure conditions, however, must be distinguished from prosodie conditions that only hold for morphemes, not for complex words. Such constraints refer to both prosodie and morphological structure, and suggest that these two kinds of representations must be available simultaneously.

2.4. Syllables in Danish (Hans Basbell) The author presents his Sonority Syllable Model which is based on "a universal logic of segment types". The complete inventories of onsets and codas of the stressed Danish (native monomorphemic) monosyllable are analyzed, and further restrictions (not derived from sonority) are presented. Basboll also includes an analysis of the phonotactics of unstressed syllables, thus arriving at a complete phonotactic analysis of the Danish word. The author then discusses syllabification principles, and in particular the principles for syllable boundaries between a full vowel and schwa within native Danish words. The weakening of obstruents (sometimes called Consonant Gradation) and some particular variants of short /a/ and loi are shown to constitute evidence for syllabification in Danish. Finally, the author shows how the syllable in Danish is moraically structured in terms of an analysis of the placement of stod.

Introducing the volume

3

2.5. The syllable in Hindi (Manjari Ohala) This chapter reports on experiments carried out by the author dealing with two aspects of syllable structure in Hindi: syllabification of intervocalic consonants and the organization of the syllable. The syllabification experiments use a modified version of a 'pause-break' experimental task. Subjects are presented with different alternatives for inserting a pause within a word and asked to choose what they regard as the optimal alternative (e.g., for the word [cela] 'disciple', [ce#la] or [cel#a]). The results of the experiments show that although intervocalic single consonants are syllabified with the following vowel in accordance with the 'onset first principle', the syllable division for intervocalic two-consonant clusters is between the two consonants regardless of sonority considerations. The experiments on syllable organization tested for the internal structure being onset + rhyme, head + coda, or flat, using a modified version of a word blending task. Subjects were presented with a pair of real words and asked to make a new word blending the two words (e.g. [rog] 'disease' [tap] 'fever' > [rap] = onset + rhyme or [rop] = head + coda. The results rule out onset + rhyme and seem to support head + coda. However, the possibility of the structure being flat is not entirely ruled out by the author.

2.6. Head-driven Phonology (Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter) The authors defend an approach that is strongly inspired by insights developed within Dependency and especially Government Phonology. The central idea is that syllabic constituents are headed and maximally contain two segmental positions. This claim severely limits the options for analyzing many of the complexities involving onsets and rhymes that contain more than two segments and calls for postulating onsets followed by unrealized rhymes. Segments appearing in syllabic positions, in addition, must satisfy a variety of licensing constraints for which the authors propose a new typology. The chapter concludes with a case study of so-called 'minor syllables' in Kammu.

2.7. The syllable in German: exploring an alternative (Wiebke Brockhaus) This chapter is primarily concerned with the role of the syllable in the phonology of German, although its basic claims are universal. Brockhaus takes as her point of departure the general arguments in favor of the syllable and then asks whether these arguments are really as compelling as is widely thought. What emerges from the discussion is that referring to a syllable node is not necessarily the only, or perhaps the best, strategy in dealing with certain

4

Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

phonological phenomena. Alternatives are available. The author then shows that a framework such as Government Phonology has the potential for handling the relevant constraints and events in terms of universal principles and parameters which never mention the syllable. Language-specific facts are captured through the settings of a relatively small number of parameters, without the need for devices such as wholly language-specific sonority hierarchies or syllable schémas which are in no way constrained by Universal Grammar. By the same token, the problems caused by the power or destructive nature of extrasyllabicity and resyllabification vanish completely, as neither strategy is needed in the grammar. Brockhaus compares her analysis with a recent syllable-based account of the German syllable.

2.8. Consonant clusters and governing relations: Polish initial consonant sequences (Eugeniusz Cyran & Edmund Gussmann) This chapter addresses the problem of the Polish initial consonant sequences, e.g. [pt]ak 'bird', [krt]an 'larynx', [mgw]a 'mist', [drgnfôc' 'shudder', [psts]yc 'make gaudy', [3d3bw]o 'blade of grass', and investigates the mechanisms necessary to describe them. The strict view on the structure of syllabic constituents, which lies at the heart of the model of Government Phonology adopted here, entails the existence of empty nuclei in such sequences. The authors conclude that the licensing mechanisms proposed thus far are not able to justify all the facts of Polish initial phonotactics, and they consider two new mechanisms determining segmental distribution which may be at play in Polish: (a) melodic constraints which are not due to government; these may be derived from the interaction between phonological elements, or from the OCP; (b) prosodie effects following from the notion of Licensing Inheritance. A further central theoretical issue considered in this chapter is the nature and effects of the interaction between two major principles of the theory. The analysis of the Polish facts seems to require that Interonset Government be ranked higher than Proper Government. The authors provide a rationale for this sort of ranking by trying to derive it from other general principles of grammar, namely Government Licensing.

2.9. Hungarian syllable structure: arguments for/against complex constituents (Miklós Törkenczy & Péter Siptár) This chapter examines whether complex constituents have to be recognized at the edges of syllables in Hungarian. The mere existence of consonant clusters at the beginning or end of words in a given language is no proof that complex

Introducing the volume

5

onsets and complex codas exist in a language. Edges allow for extra possibilities that need not involve branching onsets or complex codas. In the first part of this chapter, the authors give an overview of the various ways such edge phenomena are accounted for in the literature. Turning to Hungarian, it is argued that all domain-initial consonant clusters can (and should) be analyzed as edge effects of some sort, rather than complex onsets. It is also suggested, albeit somewhat tentatively, that apparent complex codas could also be analyzed as edge phenomena. A number of alternations/processes that are sensitive to syllable structure are considered as evidence pertaining to the issue of whether the phonotactic patterns observed in Hungarian (including #CC-, -CCC-, CC#, -CCC#) are to be viewed as involving complex onsets, complex codas, both, or neither.

2.10. The Latin syllable (Giovanna Marotta) The structure of the syllable in Classical Latin is investigated in this chapter, using an onset-rhyme model. First Marotta addresses the methodological problems connected with the study of a dead language. The phonetic interpretation of some ambiguous spellings is discussed, in the spirit of reconstructing the phonology of Latin as a real language once spoken, and not only as a written, literary code. After a detailed discussion of the phonological inventory of the language, the syllable structure is presented. Special attention is devoted to vowel quantity, which plays an important role in the prosodie structure of the language, as well as in metrics. The relationship between syllabic weight and stress placement is dealt with, leading to the conclusion that this relation supports the existence of a rhyme constituent. The interactions between phonological structure and morpho-syntactic structure are underlined, since they explain why deviations from the basic syllable template are all found in word-final position, where long codas are admitted. Morphology is also held responsible for the special status of the sibilant, which not only is licensed in extra positions at word boundaries, but also allows the preservation of the vowel length in closed syllables.

2.11. Syllables in Western Koromfe (John R. Rennison) This chapter investigates the syllable structure of Western Koromfe, a Gur language of northern Burkina Faso, which is compared to the related language Mòoré (the largest Gur language), which though genetically related has gone different ways with regard to a number of interesting aspects of phonological structure (in particular: Mòoré has tones, but Koromfe has none). Rennison

6

Harry van der Hülst & Nancy Α. Ritter

adopts the approach of Government Phonology. The author adopts a version of this model that investigates the total elimination of branching constituents, assuming, then, that all syllables are simple CV structures. To this end he focuses on the analysis of (formerly) branching constituents (geminates, nasal + voiced stop sequences, long vowels and diphthongs) and the licensing versus filling of empty constituents.

2.12. The syllable in Luganda phonology and morphology (Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba) The Luganda syllable has been the subject of extensive treatment. Despite the distinction of many linguists and the quality of their work, investigations have all been limited to studying the phonological properties of the Luganda syllable in isolation, i.e. without regard to how the syllabification process fits into a total grammar. In their chapter, the authors take a close look at how the phonological syllabification process interacts with the complex préfixai and suffixal morphology typical of Luganda and related Bantu languages. They show that the syllabification process actually differs when applying within, as opposed to outside, the "prosodie stem". They also show evidence for a major cyclic effect: while some roots begin with a "stable y" which is present in all derived forms, others show an alternation between y and 0. The authors provide the first general account of y / 0 alternation, showing at the same time that the presence vs. absence of [y] depends crucially on the phonological shape of the preceding préfixai morpheme. Any earlier prefixes are irrelevant to the process, suggesting a step-by-step syllabification process: add a prefix to the stem, then syllabify (vs. waiting for all the prefixes to be added in a non-cyclic way). This conclusion, however, contrasts with what is needed to capture the tonal effects of VNC sequences in the language: the location of a stem-level assigned high tone requires knowledge of what kind of prefix (e.g. CV vs. V vs. Ν vs. 0 ) will precede at the ("later") word-level. Hyman & Katamba suggest that this antistratal effect provides an argument for a less derivational, 'direct mapping' approach to the processes under consideration. The conclusion they draw is that syllabification in so-called agglutinative languages such as Bantu must be studied in its morphological context.

2.13. Kihehe syllable structure (David Odden & Mary Odden) This chapter discusses a number of general issues in the phonology of Kihehe, which is a Bantu language spoken in southwestern Tanzania, focusing on areas of the language which relate to the structure of the syllable. Following an

Introducing the volume

7

overview of the basic syllable typology of the language, the authors investigate two domains involving syllable readjustment and compensatory lengthening: the resolution of vocalic hiatus, and lengthening of vowels before NC sequences. It is shown that concatenation of two vowels always leads to syllablefiision with compensatory lengthening of the surviving vowels. In addition, vowels are always lengthened before a sequence of a nasal plus a consonant. They discuss the theoretical implications of these lengthening phenomena, especially for the representation of non-alternating words. Then they show how gemination of nasals is sensitive to tone, since a geminate (syllabic) nasal can exist only if it bears H tone. Finally, they consider the phonetic and phonological properties of syllabic nasals in the language. It is shown that there are two kinds of syllabic nasals, one being dependent for its place features on the following syllable and the other forming an autonomous syllable, without phonological connection to any following syllable.

2.14. Dschang syllable structure (Steven Bird) The syllable structure of Dschang is interesting for a variety of reasons. Most notable is the aspiration which can appear on most consonant types, including voiced stops. The author argues that aspiration is best viewed as moraic, contributing to the weight of a syllable. He shows that an understanding of the syllable structure also gives valuable insights into the phonemic inventory and the distributional asymmetries of segments, and helps to explain some curious morpho-phonemic vowel alternations in the imperative construction.

2.15. The syllable in Chinese (San Duanmu) This chapter argues that the syllable plays a critical role in Chinese phonology. First, a comparison is provided of the traditional view of the Chinese syllable and the one offered by the author. The chapter focuses on two varieties of Chinese, Mandarin and Shanghai, and shows that the former has syllables of the type CVX (i.e. all heavy, although weak CV syllables occur in unstressed positions) whereas the latter has CV syllables only (i.e. all light, except when stressed, in which case they become heavy). In his analysis, Duanmu makes the interesting claim that the pre-nuclear glide is in the onset, as opposed to in the nucleus, and relates this claim to an approach toward representing complex onsets as complex segments.

8

Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

2.16. The syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic (San'ânï and Cairene) (Janet C.E. Watson) This chapter examines the syllable structure and syllabification of Sancânï Arabic, an urban dialect of North Yemeni Arabic, in comparison to that of the more widely documented Cairene Arabic. It discusses the analysis of apparent CVCCC syllables in Çancânï Arabic in view of the fact that syllables in Arabic are held to be maximally bimoraic. Consequently, it is proposed that Sancânî CVCCC syllables can be properly analyzed as marked variants of CVCC syllables: the only two consonants which occur in final position in CVCCC syllables are exceptionally linked to a single consonant slot. The author considers then three syllable-related processes, namely: epenthesis, closed syllable shortening, and syncope. While syllable-related processes are strictly structure-preserving in Cairene Arabic, closed syllable shortening and syncope do not appear to be structure-preserving in Sancânï Arabic: word-internal CVCC syllables are attested optionally, and syllables with initial 'clusters' of up to three consonants (many of which disobey the Sonority Hierarchy Principle) arise as a result of syncope. It is demonstrated, however, that syllables are maximally bimoraic at the post-lexical as well as at the lexical level and that word-internal CVVC syllables arise from an adjunction operation. In the case of initial consonant 'clusters', it is argued that syncope frequently deletes the vowel of a syllable, but not the mora; where the initial consonant (the consonant to the left of the syncopated vowel) is more sonorous than the following consonant (the consonant to the right of the syncopated vowel), the floating mora reassociates with the initial consonant which functions as the syllable peak of the initial syllable. Post-lexically, then, syllabic consonants are attested in Sancânî, while onsets with more than two consonants are not attested.

2.17. The Romansch syllable (Jean-Pierre Montreuil) The first part of this chapter presents a general picture of the syllable in Romansch. Vowel distribution patterns show the crucial role played by length and the various ways in which length interacts with prosodie phenomena (stress and syllable structure) and segmental features (laxness, height). Although the language is fairly conservative in its consonantism and general phonotactics, word-final syllables are shown to deviate from canonical shapes, as their right edge can be affected by several processes of epenthesis and devoicing. Then Montreuil shows that the set of syllabic segments is a subset of the moraic set and proposes a sonority-based mora-building algorithm which interacts with syllable-building and serves as the basis for the stress system: Romansch displays transparent moraic trochees, no extrametricality requirement, and a

Introducing the volume

9

bimoraic upper limit within the syllable. Finally, the author reanalyzes a particular process that has been viewed as problematic for a moraic representation of the Romansch syllable: glide-hardening in Surmiran. It is argued that the glide-to-velar hardening process can be shown to target only non-moraic glides, and thus provides a phonetic confirmation of the validity of the moraic structures proposed earlier.

2.18. Syllables and phonotactics in Irish (Máire Ni Chiosáin) The account of the phonotactics of Irish presented in this chapter focuses on the distributional patterning of consonants. The first section presents the facts of syllable- and word-initial onsets, both simple and complex. The inventory of word-initial onsets is increased in environments in which morphologically and syntactically conditioned initial-consonant mutation occurs. The additional clusters permitted in word-initial position in these environments generally reflect a relaxing of requirements on the sonority profile of onset clusters. Other facts mentioned in this primarily descriptive section include the neutralization of distinctive contrasts and certain restrictions on secondary articulations in word-initial onsets. The focus of the second part of this chapter is the patterning of post-vocalic consonants. The author presents a theoretical account of the epenthetic vowel that results from restrictions on the sonority profile of such clusters. The facts concerning these clusters require reference to both sonority and prosodie structure. Chiosáin argues that the facts are best accounted for in a constraint-based approach whereby the epenthesis patterns that emerge reflect the interaction of segmental and prosodie constraints: sonority-driven cluster constraints compel epenthesis, while higher-ranking prosodie constraints constrain it.

2.19. A preliminary account of some aspects of Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure (Norval Smith) The syllable structure of Scottish Gaelic is extremely involved, and so poses a significant problem for existing models of the syllable. In particular, the structure of the rhyme is highly complex, involving epenthetic vowels whose syllabic status has been regarded as controversial. The model of the syllable that Smith employs to tackle these facts incorporates two important insights. The basic framework for the model is provided by an X-bar model of the syllable. Further he utilizes the notion that parasitic vowels may be situated as it were in syllables within syllables. Smith adopts the idea that the syllabification "rules" or algorithms form part of GEN (the Generator in Optimality Theory) and will

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

produce syllabified inputs to the phonology. Constraint ranking will further determine the optimal output. The author then studies four syllable structure phenomena in the Scottish Gaelic dialect of Leurbost, Lewis: the occurrence of svarabhakti vowels, vowel syncope, simultaneous syncope and svarabhakti, and vowel lengthening before "tense" sonorants.

2.20. Quantity in Norwegian syllable structure (Gjert Kristoffersen) This chapter discusses a long-standing problem in Norwegian (and Swedish) phonology on the basis of data from East Norwegian. The problem is how to account for vowel length and consonant gemination in stressed syllables. The author shows how both are limited to environments where only one consonant intervenes between the stressed vowel and a following unstressed vowel, and they are in complementary distribution in the sense that one obligatorily finds either a long vowel or a consonant geminate in this environment, but never both. If one regards vowel length and consonant gemination as a fulfillment of the requirement that stressed syllables must be heavy, and further if stress assignment can be accounted for independently of the surface weight of the syllables that have been so expanded, then the expansion itself is predictable and follows from stress. But the expansion type, vowel lengthening or consonant gemination, is not predictable, and must in some way be marked in the lexicon. If this is done directly, by assigning underlying length to vowels and consonants, this will at the same time represent a redundant pre-specification of stress placement. Kristoffersen then argues that stress placement is indeed predictable without marking vowel length or consonant gemination in underlying structure. Since syllable expansion itself therefore is predictable, it is the expansion type that should be marked in the lexicon, but without pre-specification of stress placement in the form of long vowels or consonant geminates. The author shows that an analysis by means of co-phonologies within an Optimality Theoretic framework can give an adequate account of the data, but an Optimality analysis without co-phonologies will fail on the same counts as earlier analyses.

2.21. A syllable-level feature in Finnish (Richard Ogden) This chapter presents a description of some non-terminal (or prosodie) phonological features of Finnish. The framework used in the chapter is that of Firthian Prosodie Analysis (FPA), but the formalism used to capture the analysis in formal terms is that of Declarative Phonology. The author presents a brief summary of FPA and argues that it is fully compatible with Declarative Phonology. He goes on to illustrate this point with a non-destructive account of

Introducing the volume

11

rounding in Finnish plural forms and argues that Finnish provides evidence for treating the feature [±round] as a property of the syllable as a whole.

2.22. Sievers' Law in Vedic (Andrea Calabrese) Sievers' law deals with the syllabification of high vocoids appearing before a vowel and after a consonant in Indo-European languages. This chapter is concerned with the instantiation of this law in Vedic and, more in general, with the syllabification of consonant clusters ending with a sonorant in this language. As one of his main results, Calabrese proposes to recognize the presence of ambisyllabic structures. The proposal is that in Vedic, consonants appearing before a sonorant are syllabified both as the coda of the preceding light syllable and as the onset of the following syllable. It is shown that several results can be derived from this representation.

Notes 1.

We thank the authors for providing us with the 'raw material' for these summaries.

Part I: General Issues

2

Theories of the syllable

Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter

1. Introduction

The goal of this chapter is to discuss some general issues in syllable theory. Section 2 presents some of the more difficult data that any theory of syllable structure or phonotactics must address, specifically involving complex consonant clusters. Section 3, then, discusses a number of approaches to syllable structure, comparing them and showing the equivalences and differences. In section 4, we address a number of fundamental questions regarding the level of grammar at which phonotactics must be stated, and how many levels are needed. In section 5, we offer some conclusions.

2. Some examples of syllabic complexities

Accepting the idea that the phonotactic structure of words can be largely understood by assuming that segments are organized into syllable-sized units, of which words can contain several occurrences, we start out by observing that in some languages, words show a simple repetition of CV syllables, without there being any further complications at the edges of words.1 The number of repetitions of the CV-unit that is allowed per 'word' is typically not unlimited but instead depends on general constraints which determine the maximal size of feet and prosodie words in terms of 'prosodie templates' (cf. Kager 1994, van der Hulst & Klamer 1996). Focusing our attention on the structure of the syllable unit itself, we observe that many languages seem to allow various deviations of this basic CV scheme. Traditional descriptive and theoretical terminology labels such deviations as 'complex onsets', 'closed syllables', 'complex codas' and 'intervocalic clusters'. An important discovery has been that the deviations from the simple schema can be limited in some languages to word edges only. It is well known, for example, that extra consonants can occur on the left or right periphery of words, leading to initial or final clusters which we do not encounter word-internally as syllable-initial or syllable-final clusters, respectively.

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

Extra consonantal options at the periphery of words are often referred to as 'prependix', 'extraprosodic (or extrasyllabic) position', and 'appendix'; sometimes it is proposed that even two types of extra positions are allowed wordfinally in order to account for so-called 'superheavy syllables' which are followed by a coronal 'appendix' as in Dutch her-f-s-t 'autumn', where the til is the extra consonant producing the superheavy syllable (herf), while /st/ occupies the appendix position; cf. Trommelen (1983) and van der Hulst (1984). In some frameworks, such as government phonology (Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud 1990, and chapters 6-11 in this volume), the extra consonants are represented as 'degenerate syllables' consisting of an overt onset and an empty nucleus. Similar ideas have emerged in recent moraic theories of syllable structure (Shaw 1993, Nepveu 1994). In Kurylowicz (1952), the peripheral degenerate syllables are stranded onsets, i.e. not followed by an empty nucleus; this approach is also found in Polgárdi (1998) and Dell (1995). In still other (usually more descriptively oriented) approaches, the extra consonants are not given any special structural status, and it is simply assumed that onsets and codas at word edges can be more complex; cf. chapter 9 in this volume for a discussion of such differences with respect to initial clusters in Hungarian. With the option of having extra word-peripheral consonants, a language can have CV as its core syllable, allowing only CCV word-initially and/or only CVC word-finally. In other cases, such as Dutch, the 'core' syllable is more complex, allowing CC initially and W or VC finally. In such a case, word edges can also allow extra consonants, arriving at the possibility of word-initial tri-consonantal clusters (always involving initial /s/) and word-final superheavy syllables (-VVC/-VCC). When edges do not license extra material, the core syllable simply recurs throughout the whole word. As mentioned, the core syllable can be the simple CV unit but may also represent a set of syllable types (as in Dutch) such as CV, CCV, CVC, CCVC, V, VC, which is collapsed into the template (C(C))V(C).2 However, things may not always be so straightforward. It has been argued (especially within government phonology; cf. chapter 6) that some languages which superficially show various types of complications throughout the word, must still be analyzed as 'strict' CV languages.3 For example, in such cases, arguments can be provided for representing apparent cases of initial consonant clusters (#CCV) as ttCvCV, where the small ν stands for 'empty nucleus'. Likewise medial -CC- can be analyzed as -CvC-, and final C# as Cv#. An analysis of this type has been proposed for Leti, a language allowing all these patterns, in van der Hulst & van Engelenhoven (1995) and van der Hulst & Klamer (1996). The guiding idea of government phonology is that an explanatoiy structural description of the phonological structure of words may call for postulating a somewhat abstract organization which contains units or terminal nodes that

Theories of the syllable

15

remain empty. In addition, government phonology appeals to various principles that regulate the distribution of these empty nodes. It is also possible, however, that complications of the CV schema that occur throughout the word reflect genuine enrichments of the syllable template. Proponents of government phonology have proposed that the complications are limited to headed binary branching structures so that only bi-positional onsets and bi-positional nuclei (or rhymes) are allowed.4 We believe that the observation that certain complexities are limited to edges is quite crucial to counter the simplistic view that the syllable template for a language can be defined as the sum total of word-initial and word-final clusters separated by the set of vowels. We now turn to a brief discussion of a few cases which show that certain complexities are confined to word edges. An inspection of Dutch syllable structure (as found in Trommelen 1983, van der Hulst 1984) reveals that Dutch 'onsets' can only exceed the number of two when at the left word edge, in which case tri-consonantal clusters are allowed consisting of/s/ + obstruent + liquid: (1)

stronk splijt sprong

'trunk' 'split' 'jump'

When such a tri-consonantal cluster is found word-internally (between two vowels), without the interference of a strong morpheme boundary, it is split up by a syllable division as follows: (2)

mis.tral es.planade Cas.tro

'mistral' 'esplanade' 'Castro'

Independent evidence for this syllable division (as Trommelen 1983 points out) is that the vowel to the left of /s/ is lax, which is a signal of being checked by a following tautosyllabic consonant (cf. van Oostendorp 1995). The claim that word-initial clusters need not be syllable-initial clusters can even be shown on the basis of seemingly well-behaved bi-consonantal clusters consisting of an obstruent and a sonorant: (3)

a. gnoom slaaf tjiftjaf

'gnome' 'slave' 'type of bird'

b. Ag.nes Os.lo at.jar

'Agnes' 'Oslo' 'atjar'

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

The possible initial clusters /gn1, /si/, /tj/ are split up intervocalically. This shows that the only 'real' branching onsets are those consisting of an obstruent (excluding /sÍ) followed by a liquid (cf. Trommelen 1983).5 Another language that has word-initial clusters with more than two consonants is Polish (chapter 8, this volume, Rubach & Booij 1990, Rowicka 1999): (4)

pstry zdzbl-o bzdura

'mottled' 'blade' [3d3bwo] 'nonsense'

Evidence for the word-internal syllabification of such clusters is harder to obtain given their scarcity in underived words (cf. below), but this is in itself an indication that the clusters may be restricted to the word-initial position. In addition to having such complex clusters, initial bi-consonantal clusters appear to allow almost any combination of two consonants (but see chapter 8, this volume, for a discussion of many restrictions). The possible combinations are clearly not restricted to those that obey the so-called Sonority Sequencing Generalization (SSG; Selkirk 1982, Clements 1990): (5)

ptak scheda [sx] skok mnozyc lnu rtec

'bird' 'inheritance' 'jump' 'multiply' 'linen' 'mercury'

Rubach & Booij (1990) note that the options for word-internal onsets are considerably restricted, suggesting that a cluster like [-rt-], allowed word-initially, is heterosyllabic word-internally: kar-ty 'cards'. This is very similar to what we reported for Dutch above. The realization that clusters that exceed the size of two consonants as well as clusters that (in addition) violate the SSG are restricted to the word-initial position, frees the way to claiming that clusters that are grammatical at the left edge of words are not necessarily true onsets. Many phonologists have treated the extra options at the left edge of words by allowing an extrasyllabic consonant in that position (cf. Rubach & Booij 1990 for Polish), treated as stranded onsets by some (cf. Kurylowicz 1952). Others have suggested that the apparent sequence of two consonants may in some case involve complex segments (s+C clusters; cf. van de Weijer 1994 and the discussion of Wiese (1995) in chapter 7, this volume). The approach that is advanced in government phonology (mentioned above) claims (in some respects following Kurylowicz' 'stray onset' analysis of Polish) that the extra material

Theories of the syllable

17

involves 'degenerate' syllables consisting of onsets followed by empty rhymes (cf. Ritter 1995 for initial clusters in Hungarian). Some of these options are perhaps not mutually exclusive and may be compounded in a language like Georgian, leading to initial clusters of excessive complexity (cf. Nepveu 1994, Bush 1997, Vogt 1958). With respect to rhymal structure we can make similar observations. Languages such as Dutch, English, and Hungarian (where in Hungarian accent marks indicate length) allow word-final 'rhymes' that are rather complex: (6)

Dutch oogst ernst vreemd

'harvest' 'seriousness' 'strange'

English sixth blast clown

Hungarian társ 'companion' meggy 'sour cherry' fut 'to heat'

In each case, we find lax/short vowels followed by up to 4 consonants (VCCCC), or tense/long vowels followed by up to 3 consonants (V, ense CCC or VVCCC). An inspection of word-internal syllables demonstrates to us that such very complex rhymes are rather rare when they are not word-final. This leads us to the descriptive generalization that 'superheavy' syllables (i.e. syllables ending in overcomplex rhymes) are limited to the right edge of words; this observation is also commonly made with reference to Arabic dialects (cf. chapter 16, this volume). In addition, there are phonological alternations which suggest that in certain languages long vowels cannot occur in a closed syllable word-internally. Kaye (1990) cites such evidence from Wolof: (7)

Imperfective roof yeew tc£R

Inversive roppi yewwi teddi

'to put in/to take out' 'to tie/to untie' 'to start/to stop a vehicle'

Such effects, often called Closed Syllable Shortening (CSS), are found in many languages suggesting that rhymes are maximally binary (i.e. bi-positional), consisting of a short vowel plus consonant or a long vowel by itself. The occurrence of complex rhymes at the right edge of words again has lead to postulating concepts like 'extrasyllabic consonants', 'heterosyllabic representations of long vowels', 'appendices', 'stray onsets', or onsets followed by 'empty rhymes'. In all cases discussed, the generalization that certain complexities only occur at word edges must be qualified by saying that the notion 'word' here refers to non-compounded, non-prefixed words, and words that do not contain certain classes of suffixes, such as so-called level II affixes and inflectional affixes. Exactly how to characterize the scope of the syllabic domain is not a trivial

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

matter, however; cf. chapter 6 for a discussion of this domain which is called 'non-analytic' in government phonology; cf. Kaye (1995). 6 Some languages, however, seem to challenge the claim that certain complexities occur at edges only, by allowing words to consist of sequences of consonants only: (8)

Nuxalk (formerly called Bella Coola; Baghemil (1991) xscc 'I'm now fat' lxwtlcxw 'you spat on me' Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber (Dell & Elmedlaoui 1985) tftkt 'you suffered a sprain' ssrksxt Ί hid him'

With respect to the Nuxalk facts, it has been suggested that such sequences should be taken as evidence for the claim that syllables can consist of just onsets (Hockett 1955), that the segmental string lacks syllable structure (S. Newman 1969, 1971), that there is only partial syllable structure (Baghemil 1991), or that syllables have obstruents as their peaks (Hoard 1978). Dell & Elmedlaoui (1985) suggest that in the Berber dialect that they analyze any type of segment (including all consonants) can form a syllable peak. An alternative analysis of similar facts in another dialect can be found in Guerssel (1990), who postulates empty nuclei. 7 The point of these examples is to suggest, however, that apart from complexities regarding consonant clusters at edges, the total absence of vowels throughout a word is a phenomenon that we must also reckon with. Unfortunately, the present volume does not contain a chapter dealing with any of the last type of languages and an insightful analysis of most of such cases, embedded in a principled theory of syllable structure, is not known to us. As a final remark in this section, we draw attention to the fact that especially in the latter type of cases (but also in the languages with complexities at edges only), we have to take into account the morphological composition of words. This issue relates closely to determining the precise domain of the syllabic organization in terms of which we capture the phonotactic patterns of a language.

Theories of the syllable

19

3. The syllable as a phonological unit

3.1. Reintroducing the syllable8 The, by now, traditional manner of motivating the need for the syllable in phonological analysis is to memorize the position that Chomsky and Halle took in their Sound Pattern of English (1968) (SPE). Assuming that the best theory of phonological representations is the most minimal one, Chomsky and Halle proposed that a phonological representation is simply a string of unordered feature bundles, provided with a set of boundary symbols reflecting the morphological composition of words and a labeled bracketing system representing the syntactic organization of these words. It soon became clear that 'doing phonology without syllables' was a mistake. The representations were perhaps simpler by not containing yet another type of boundary (i.e. syllable boundaries), but the rules (i.e. those which in fact depended on the syllabic organization) turned out to be more cumbersome than necessary, in particular because each of them in some sense encoded the principles for locating the syllable boundaries. The two rules in (9), symbolizing a phonological process Ά changes to Β in the environment...', reconstruct the notion of open and closed syllables, respectively, in the description of the environment: (9)

a. A —• Β / — {#, CV} b. A —» Β / — C { # , C }

The context ' — CC' in (9b) would in fact have to be further characterized (in a further condition to be added to the rule) as not referring to sequences of an obstruent followed by a sonorant liquid in languages where such clusters are allowed as well-formed onsets. Clearly, identifying syllable boundaries before applying rules is a necessary tool. The representation may get more complicated by adding syllable boundaries or syllable structure, but the rules can be simplified and, more importantly, freed from arbitrary disjunctions like 'either a word boundary or a consonant'. By applying syllabification first, the explanation for why these two contexts form a natural class becomes more apparent. Subsequently, additional arguments have arisen in which it has been pointed out that rules or generalizations not only refer to syllable edges, but also to the syllable itself as a domain. Certain languages show that features (nasality, for example) may take the syllable as their domain; cf. Nespor & Vogel (1986: chapter 3), and van der Hulst & Smith (1982). A third argument that has been brought forward in favor of the syllable has been that this unit (or one of its constituents, the rhyme or the mora(s)), rather than the vowel, may be the bearer of such 'suprasegmental properties' as accent or (lexical) tone. In this

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

case, even though it is not the syllable but a proper subpart of it (its rhyme or moras), that is the actual bearer of such properties, it was still assumed that it is necessary that the unit of which these entities form a part must be represented in some fashion. 9 Arguments regarding accent have especially supported recognizing the syllable (or a part of it) as a crucial level in the so-called prosodie hierarchy; cf. Nespor & Vogel (1986). Finally, the syllable appears to have another kind of motivation involving the notion of well-formedness. In SPE, regularities in the shape of lexical entries (formatives or morphemes) were encoded in so-called morpheme structure rules or constraints. Among these, we find (i) segment structure constraints which define the combinations of specified features that define the class of segments in a language, and (ii) sequence structure constraints which define well-formed sequences of segments in a language. In English, for example, a well-known sequence constraint marks morpheme-initial /bn/ as ill-formed, while allowing IbV, /br/ etc. Once syllables were recognized, such statements seemed more adequately stated in terms of this type of unit; cf. Clayton (1976), Shibatani (1973), and Hooper (1976). The question concerning at what level such syllable structure constraints are stated (underlying, surface) is discussed in section 4. In summarizing, below are the five major arguments advanced in support of the adoption of syllable structure: (10) a. Reference to the edges of syllables b. Reference to the syllable as a domain of feature 'spreading' c. Reference to the syllable (or part of it) as the anchor of suprasegmental features d. Reference to the syllable as part of a prosodie hierarchy e. Reference to the syllable as the domain of well-formedness constraints McCawley (1968), Fudge (1969), Hoard (1971), Vennemann (1972), Shibatani (1973), Anderson & Jones (1974), Clayton (1976), and Hooper (1976) were among the first generative phonologists to return to the syllable, often using a boundary approach. Fudge (1969) and Kahn (1976) introduced a hierarchical view of the syllable, which fit better with the emerging hierarchical theories of phonology (Rotenberg 1978, Liberman & Prince 1977, Selkirk 1980). Shibatani (1973), Clayton (1976), and Hooper (1976) also argued specifically for the syllable as the unit of phonotactic constraints. With the rise of hierarchical structure (involving not only syllable structure but also higher prosodie structure) and the autosegmental deconstruction of the segment in terms of a hierarchy of feature tiers, the laudable minimalistic approach of SPE with respect to the structure of phonological representations was replaced by a view on representations which favored a rich and elaborate

Theories of the syllable

21

structure. In autosegmental phonology, the string of segments (as feature bundles) was replaced by a string of abstract place holders or skeletal points which formed the anchor points for features or feature classes on one hand while also being the starting point for a hierarchical organization into syllables, and further into feet, prosodie words, clitic groups, all the way up to phonological phrases, intonational phrases, and the utterance (cf. Nespor & Vogel 1986). The representational richness was (programmatically) counterbalanced by the expectation that the rules would become more constrained, both in terms of what they could do (hopefully only 'natural processes') and how they would do it (only in terms of elementary operations of inserting and deleting association lines). This development was driven by the idea that if the representations are right, the rules will follow. If taken literally, this means that languages will ultimately only differ in their representations, a view that requires a system of parameters with settings that determine limited options with respect to every hierarchical level of representation. Explicit systems of parameters have been proposed for the levels directly above the syllable, viz. the foot and word level (in the context of the 'metrical theory' of stress; cf. Vergnaud & Halle 1978, Halle & Vergnaud 1987, Hayes 1980, 1995, van der Hulst 1999b). Limiting ourselves in this chapter to the level of syllable structure, we will not discuss these metrical parameters. Instead, we will turn to parametric theories of the syllable in the next section.

3.2. Different views on the syllable-internal organization After having briefly summarized why the syllable was re-introduced into generative phonology, we proceed with discussing some of the different views on its internal structure. Early theories which referred to boundaries as well as Kahn's (1976) flat 'autosegmental' theory claimed no internal structure for the syllable, presumably since the focus at that point was on the division of the segmental string into syllabic units and/or on the segmental processes which make reference to syllable edges. With respect to theories that assume internal structure we usually distinguish between two major types (cf. Ohala, this volume): (11)

a. C

V

C

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

Vennemann (1984) referred to (1 la) as the head-body structure and to (1 lb) as the body-tail structure, arguing that the proper choice is dependent on the process that one studies. In section 4, we will return to this viewpoint which implies that both structures are in some sense available. First, we will discuss both structure types in terms of some of their current-day instantiations.

3.2.1. Onset-rhyme models The head-body or onset-rhyme model can be traced back to traditions in Chinese phonology (cf. Duanmu, this volume). It can also be found in numerous phonological works produced in the twentieth century, either informally or explicitly worked out in various ways (cf. Fischer-Jergensen 1975, Anderson 1981; an historical overview of the concept syllable before generative phonology can be found in Adewyck 1975). Fudge (1969, 1987) analyzes English syllable structure in terms of an onset-rhyme model, allowing both constituents to contain subconstituents of various kinds; Selkirk (1982) follows this approach, adopting some of the, by then, available non-linear machinery. Before that, McCarthy (1979) had employed this type of model in his study of Arabic phonology. Onset-rhyme theories can also be found in Cairns & Feinstein (1982), Lapointe & Feinstein (1982) and in government phonology (cf. below). In most general terms, a hierarchical onset-rhyme model organizes a string like English /kweynt/ 'quaint' in the following way: (12)

X X X X XX k w e y n t (Where the alphabetic symbols k, w, e, y, n, t abbreviate a hierarchical structure of tiers with features.) The terminals in this model are formed by the skeletal points (represented with x's), the anchor point for root nodes or phonological features. The structure in (12) represents a syllable with a branching onset and a branching rhyme, where the latter constituent dominates two further branching constituents: the nucleus and the coda. Some proponents of this structure would claim that all these subsyllabic constituents are headed by the left-hand skeletal point. 'Headed' in some sense means that the stronger, salient position is qualitatively

Theories of the syllable

23

more closely representative of the constituent itself. Government phonology, an approach that can be traced back to Kaye & Lowenstamm (1984), defends a version of this view explicitly. In Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud (1990), the syllable is no longer recognized as a constituent, however. We refer to the contributions in part II of this volume, and specifically to chapters 6 and 7 for a discussion of this point. Yet, even though the syllable is not recognized as a constituent, it is argued by KLV that the 0(nset) and R(hyme) form an inseparable 'package' where the R 'governs' the O. This makes the nucleus the head of the 'syllable package', a claim also advanced in Levin (1985). Government phonology captures the special character of the onset-rhyme liaison by postulating a 'government relation' which does not correlate with a sisterhood relation, as shown in the GP representation of the Dutch word klop 'knock': 10 (13)

O .25). As mentioned above, there were two types of 'foils' in the design of the experiment, one to check if subjects were consistent in their responses and the second to demonstrate that they understood the task by not choosing an unblended token. Next the results were examined to weed out subjects who failed these criteria. A question comes up as to how many errors a subject could have on these 'foils' and yet still be retained in the pool (assuming that a few errors could occur by chance). It was arbitrarily decided that of the three 'repeats', if they erred more than once, they were excluded from the pool. Furthermore, of the six opportunities for choosing an unblended word, if they erred three times or more, they were excluded. This left a pool of 23 subjects. Their results are as follows: the total number of responses were 506. Of these 270 were HC and 236 OR giving a ratio of .47 and .53 respectively. Once again the difference is not significant (χ 2 = 2.29, df = 1, ρ > .10) and fairly similar to the results of all 38 subjects. The results were also broken down by whether the words involved clusters or were CVC. This did not turn out to be a contributing variable. Nor

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did it matter what type of consonants were involved, e. g. stop + stop, nasal + stop, etc (as mentioned above the design of the test words was sensitive to this). Finally the results of eleven subjects who made no mistake in any of the 'foils' were examined. Out of their 242 responses, 130 were HC and 112 OR. This difference is again not significant (χ 2 = .81, df = 1, ρ > .25) and very similar to the ones given above. Discussion: Thus the subjects did not choose HC as might be predicted by a syllabic writing system (such as the ones for Korean and Japanese). Nor did they choose OR as native speakers of English do. There are three possibilities regarding the interpretation of these results: 1. The subjects are giving the right answers and their responses show that some people have a preference for OR and others for HC and that they are equally divided in the population. Thus we are getting at the phonological structure of Hindi in individual grammars. If this is the correct analysis, the results should show a bimodal structure. The results of all 38 subjects as group and then those for the group of 23 were examined. There was no bimodal pattern. The results of the group of 11 have too few data points to give any convincing indication of bimodality. 2. The structure of the syllable in Hindi is flat (not hierarchical) thus the question addressed by the experiment doesn't have any meaning for the subjects. And the great variation in subjects' responses was a reflection of this. 3. The test didn't test what it sought to because the task of judging blends was unreasonable (or the instructions were unclear, or subjects had memory limitations). This might indeed be a possibility since, as mentioned earlier, Hindi doesn't have very many existing words which are blends. Thus perhaps the experimental paradigm used was unsuited for a language like Hindi. In order to rule out the third possibility a slightly different experiment was conducted.

6.2. Experiment 2 This time subjects were taught to produce two different types of blends. One group was taught OR and the other HC. The aim was to see whether one type is easier to learn than the other. Even if the blending task turned out to be unusual for Hindi speakers thus taking them a while to catch on, the question is whether they catch on more quickly to one type of blend than another. Method: The word list differed from that used in experiment 1 in that words with clusters were eliminated and only CVC words were used. This was be-

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cause in a preliminary run of this experiment which involved subjects producing the blend (not just giving preference judgments) the subject was having a problem dealing with clusters. Since for the purposes of this experiment CVC words would do just as well, these were substituted. Subjects were presented orally with a pair of words such as [rog] 'disease' [tap] 'heat, fever'. The HC group was expected to give the response [rop] and the OR group [rap]. Forty such pairs were used. The instructions to the subjects about the general purpose of the experiment was the same as before. Again the English word motel was used to acquaint subjects with the notion of a blend. They were also given two appropriate "practice" word pairs from Hindi (i.e., OR or HC depending on the group) which were not part of the forty-word list. They were told to repeat the two words after the experimenter and give the blended version. (This was to ensure that they were indeed dealing with the words in question.) Then the experimenter proceeded to the main test. Twenty native speakers of Standard Hindi who are currently in the USA served as subjects. They were alternately assigned to either the HC group or the OR group. (E.g., if subject #1 was HC, #2 would be OR, and so on.) The test for all but two of the subjects was given inperson, individually; for two of the subjects (one in each group) the experiment was conducted over the telephone. All subjects were given all 40 word pairs of words (i.e., even if they reached the criterion of 13 right in a row the experimenter went through all of the words). Results: The results are as follows: The total number of errors: OR = 148, HC = 65, a highly significant difference (χ 2 = 32.34, df = 1, ρ < .001). Thus the OR group made far more errors. Of the OR group only 5 (out of 10) subjects reached the criterion of 13 right in a row. For the HC group, 7 (out of 10) did. There were also more cases where the OR group gave HC responses (82 such errors) than HC group giving OR responses (27 such errors). Thus, one interpretation of the results is that the structure of the syllable in Hindi is HC. However, some questions remain. In examining the learning curve, one finds that the group that was given OR did show progressive learning as the experiment went on, in that their correct responses increased. However, the HC group did not give evidence of such learning. Thus, it seems that the subjects came into the experiment with an HC bias (perhaps influenced by the orthography since, as mentioned earlier, it is a CV-syllabary) and thus gave more correct responses, but did not learn HC any faster.

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7. Conclusions

I think at this point all that can really be ruled out for Hindi is the organization being OR. Although the results of experiment 2 seem to support HC, if HC is influenced by orthography what is one left with? One possibility is to accept that the mental grammar of a literate adult is partly shaped by the orthography. The other possibility, if orthographic influence is factored out, is to interpret the above mentioned lack of a learning curve for HC as indicating that structure of the syllable in Hindi is flat (as was mentioned above). If further experiments support the flat structure notion, it might correlate with two other interesting areas of Hindi Phonology: the lack of spoonerisms and the lack of word stress (M. Ohala 1994). In earlier studies, Ohala & Ohala (1988) claimed that Hindi speakers do not make spoonerisms, that is, speech errors that break up parts of words. The evidence provided in that study is based both on casual observation and experimentation. Although they did not have a definitive answer as to why Hindi should lack such errors, they suggested that it could be related to the lack of word stress in Hindi. Although, as mentioned in footnote 2 the existence of word stress in Hindi is controversial, even those who claim Hindi does have word stress agree that it is far weaker than in English and plays little role functionally (e.g. does not differentiate minimal pairs). The existence of strong word stress seems to imply some kind of hierarchical structure which clumps syllables into feet marking one syllable in the clump as strong and the others as weak. A number of researchers have noted that speech errors typically involve segments from the same positions in adjacent feet. Syllable initial segments in a stressed syllable interchange with syllable initial segments in the adjacent stressed syllable. If stress is absent or not very strong, as is the case in Hindi, such hierarchical structure might be absent. Lack of a hierarchical structure within syllables as well as within a polysyllabic word could account for Hindi's lack of spoonerisms and word prosody, and for the results of the psycholinguistic experiments reported here.

A cknowledgments The research reported here was made possible by a grant from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and also by the San José State University's College of Humanities & Arts, Dean's Small Grant. I am extremely grateful to Bruce Derwing and Grace Weibe for very generously making available to me the design and details of their own experiments and also for their valuable comments on the design features of my experiment. I would like to thank all my subjects for

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giving so generously of their time. I thank Dr. Anvita Abbi of JNU and Promila Puri of Lady Sri Ram College for their help in obtaining subjects from their institutions and Mr. Arya Bhushan for his help in obtaining subjects in the U.S. This chapter has also greatly benefited from the comments of John Ohala, Bruce Derwing, Rebecca Treiman, Hans Basboll, and the editors of this volume.

Notes 1.

2.

3.

4. 5.

6.

7.

8.

Versions of this chapter have been presented at the following conferences: the International Conference of Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP) meeting in Yokohama, Japan, September 1994; the colloquium on "The Phonology of the World's Languages: The Syllable" organized by J. Durand, Pézenas, France, June 21-24, 1996; The Eighteenth South Asian Languages Analysis Roundtable, New Delhi, India, January 6-8, 1997. Word stress assignment algorithms given by Mehrotra (1965), Kelkar (1968), Pandey (1989), etc., require the classification of syllables as light, medium, or heavy. However, the existence of word stress in Hindi is controversial: Rumyanceva (1988) and M. Ohala (1991) claim that it does not exist. The remarks here are restricted to Indo-Aryan because in a recent paper Mohanan (1989) claims that, unlike Hindi speakers, speakers of Malayalam (a Dravidian language) break words such as [bhokti] 'devotion' as bhs-kti. These authors are not implying gemination here. Since they claim the [g] belongs to both syllables, it could be interpreted as ambisyllabicity. Although the Hindi orthography, Devanagari, is often called an alphabet, it has some aspects which would suggest that it is more a syllabary. Excluding special graphs for consonant clusters, a basic graph can stand for a V or a CV. A given consonant graph can have one of 9 vowel diacritics added to it to convey a particular CV syllable. But without such a diacritic the schwa vowel is understood. This latter detail resembles a syllabary. Finally, in contrast to the diacriticized consonants which are read as CV, there are no graphs that can be read as VC. The reason for including only liquids and stops is that the data-gathering session was rather long (since words of interest to other experiments were also included in the same sitting). Since liquids are at the higher end of the sonority hierarchy and stops at the bottom, it was felt that a sufficient range had been covered. However, results from a recent experiment conducted by the author using the Fallows ( 1981) experimental paradigm which involves a production task show that in cases where the V-CV syllabification would violate Hindi MSC's (for example when short vowels such as the schwa would end up being syllable final), subjects were more likely to choose VC-V. Thus it could be that the Derwing experimental paradigm used here is not as sensitive as the Fallows' one since it simply asked for subjects reaction to the stimuli presented whereas the Fallows paradigm involves a production task. Although Hindi does have intervocalic clusters involving more than two consonants (M. Ohala 1983), for this experiment only clusters of two consonants were included. The experiment also did not include words with homorganic nasal + stop clusters or geminates.

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9.

10.

11.

12.

Manjari Ohala

It should be noted that there is no phonological or psychological reason to assume a different underlying form for the words in (3) as far as medial clusters such as -pi- are concerned, nor differences involving different strata of lexical phonology. All of these are considerations mentioned by Clements (1990). Misra (1991) working with Konkani (another Indo-Aryan language) also posits such VC-CV breaks for intervocalic -CC-'s (other than geminates and homorganic nasal + stop clusters). Additionally, similar to Hindi, she syllabifies Konkani intervocalic single consonants as V-CV. Such a reading rule is for all practical purposes indistinguishable from the schwa-deletion rule posited for Hindi phonology. In phonology, of course, underlying forms with a schwa (which schwa would subsequently be deleted with the schwa-deletion rule) would only be posited if justified, e.g., by alternating forms. In the case of the words in (3) (as mentioned in footnote 9) no justification exists for positing phonological underlying forms without the medial cluster. Of course, if the orthography writes these with full symbols (i.e. -CaC-) the reading rule which deletes the schwa applies. For a detailed discussion of the schwa-deletion rule and abstract underlying forms, see M. Ohala 1974, 1983. The soft drink Limca is presumably a blend of lime and the second syllable of coca as in Coca Cola™. Although this is an example of a blend, it again uses two English words and motel seemed a more obvious choice.

References Awedyk, W. 1975 The syllable theory and Old English phonology. [Polska Akademia Nauk. Comitet Neofilologiczny] Wroclaw: Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Barnwell, T P. Ill 1971 An algorithm for segment durations in a reading machine context. Technical Report 479. M.I.T., Res. Lab. of Electronics. Basboll, H. 1994 How to derive the sonority syllable from the prototypical peak. Acta linguistica Hafniensia 27, 51-65. Bhatia, K.C. 1964 Consonant-sequences in Standard Hindi. Indian linguistics 25, 206-212. 1970 Hindi bhasha me akshar tatha shabda ki sima. Varanasi: Nagari Pracharini Sabha. Brière, E.J., R.N. Campbell & M. Soemarmo 1967 A behavioral study of the syllable. Working papers in English as a second language. Los Angeles: Department of English, UCLA, 77-85. Clements, G.N. 1990 The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In J. Kingston & M.E. Beckman (eds.), Papers in laboratory phonology I: between the grammar and physics of speech. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 283-333. Clements, G.N. & S.J. Keyser 1983 CV Phonology: a generative theory of the syllable. Linguistic inquiry monograph 9. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

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Derwing, B.L. 1992 A 'pause-break' task for eliciting syllable boundary judgments from literate and illiterate speakers: preliminary results for five diverse languages. Language and speech 35 (1,2), 219-235. Derwing, B.L., S.W. Cho & H S. Wang 1991 A cross-linguistic experimental investigation of syllable structure: Some preliminary results. Proceedings of the Xllth international congress of phonetic sciences, Aix-en-Provence, 19-24 Aug 1991. Vol. 4, 110-113. Derwing, B.L. & T.M. Nearey 1991 The 'vowel-stickiness' phenomenon: Three experimental sources of evidence. Proceedings of the Xllth international congress of phonetic sciences, Aix-enProvence, 19-24 August 1991. Vol. 3, 210-213. Derwing, B.L., Y.B. Yoon & S.W. Cho 1993 The organization of the Korean syllable: experimental evidence. Japanese/Korean linguistics 2, 223-238. Dow, M L. & B.L. Derwing 1988 Experimental evidence for syllable internal structure. In R. Corrigon, M. Noonan, & F. Eckman (eds), Linguistic categorization. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Fallows, D. 1981 Experimental evidence for English syllabification and syllable structure. Linguistics 17, 179-392. Fudge, E. 1987 Branching structure within the syllable. Journal of linguistics 23, 359-377. Goswami, U. & P. Bryant 1990 Phonological skills and learning to read. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Halle, M. & J.-R. Vergnaud 1980 Three dimensional phonology. Journal of linguistic research 1, 83-105. Kelkar, A.R. 1968 Studies in Hindi-Urdu, 1: introduction and word phonology. Building Centenary and Silver Jubilee series, 35. Poona: Deccan College. Krakow, R.A. 1993 Non-segmental influences on velum movement patterns: syllables, sentences, stress, and speaking rate. In M.K. Huffman & R.A. Krakow (eds.), Nasals, nasalization, and the velum. San Diego: Academic Press, 87-116. Kubozono, H. 1995 Perceptual evidence for the mora in Japanese. In B. Connell & A. Arvaniti (eds.), Phonology and phonetic evidence. Papers in laboratory phonology IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 141-156. Mann, V.A. 1988 Phonological awareness and reading experience: A cross-linguistic perspective. Annual bulletin research institute of phoniatrics and logopedics 22, 125-133. Mehrotra, R.C. 1959 Hindi syllabic structure. Indian linguistics 20, 231-37. 1965 Stress in Hindi. Indian linguistics 26, 96-105. Misra, D. 1991 Syllable in Konakani. Indian linguistics 52.1-4, 27-38. Mohanan, T. 1989 Syllable structure in Malayalam. Linguistic inquiry 20, 589-625.

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Ohala, J.J. 1975

Ohala, M. 1974

Phonetic explanations for nasal sound patterns. In C.A. Ferguson, L.M. Hyman & J.J. Ohala (eds.), Nasàlfest: Papers from a symposium on nasals and nasalization. Stanford: Language Universale Project, 289-316.

The abstractness controversy: experimental input from Hindi. Language 50, 225235. 1983 Aspects of Hindi phonology. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. 1991 Phonological areal features of some Indo-Aryan languages. Language sciences 13, 107-124. 1994 Experiments on the syllable in Hindi. Proceedings, International conference on spoken language processing, Yokohama, 18-22 Sept. ¡994. Tokyo: Acoustical Society of Japan, 487-490. Ohala, M. & J.J. Ohala 1988 The scarcity of speech errors in Hindi. In L.M. Hyman & C.N. Li (eds.), Language, speech and mind studies in honour of Victoria A. Fromkin. London and New York: Routledge, 239-253. Pandey, P.K. 1989 Word accentuation in Hindi. Lingua 77, 37-73. Pulgram, E. 1970 Syllable, word, nexus, cursus. The Hague: Mouton. Read, C , Y.-F. Zhang, H.-Y. Nie, B.-Q. Ding 1986 The ability to manipulate speech sounds depends on knowing alphabetic writing. Cognition 24, 31-44. Rumyanceva, I.M. 1988 Hindi word-prosody (experimental research). In M.S. Andronov & B.P. Mallik (eds.), Linguistics: A Soviet approach. Calcutta: Indian journal of linguistics, 395-431. Selkirk, E.O. 1982 The syllable. In H.G. van der Hulst & N.S.H. Smith (eds.), The structure of phonological representations (partII). Dordrecht: Foris, 337-383. Shattuck-Hufhagel, S. 1983 Sublexical units and suprasegmental structure in speech production planning. In: P.F. MacNeilage (ed.), The production of speech. New York: Springer-Verlag, 109-136. Sherzer, J. 1970 Talking backwards in Cuna: the sociological reality of phonological descriptions. Southwestern journal of anthropology 26, 343-53. Treiman, R. 1983 The structure of spoken syllables: Evidence from novel word games. Cognition 15, 49-74. 1986 The division between onsets and rimes in English syllables. Journal of memory and language 25, 476-491. 1988 Distributional constraints and syllable structure in English. Journal of phonetics 16,221-229. Treiman, R. & C. Danis 1988 Syllabification of intervocalic consonants. Journal of memory and language 27, 87-104.

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Treiman, R. & A. Zukowski 1990 Toward an understanding of English syllabification. Journal of memory and language 29, 66-85. Varma, S. 1961 Critical studies in the phonetic observations of Indian grammarians. Delhi: Munshi Ram Manohar Lai. [Originally 1929 London: The Royal Asiatic Society] Varma, R.C. (ed.) 1958 Sankshipt Hindi shabdasagar. Bañaras: Nagari pracharini Sabha. Wang, H S. & B.L. Derwing 1993 Is Taiwanese a 'body' language? Paper read at the Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Conference, Carleton University, Ottawa, May 30, 1993.

Part II: Government Phonology

6

Head-Driven Phonology

Harry van der Hulst & Nancy A. Ritter

1. Introduction

The fundamental units underlying spoken natural language comprise a vast array of possible sounds. The observable fact that one language differs from another with respect to the kinds of sounds used and the combinatory interactions among sounds stems from a language's choice of the possible sounds available in conjunction with a grammar that dictates the syntax of these sounds. At first observation, the possible combinations of the members of this set of sounds or segments may seem to vary in each language, such that in some languages structures may be quite complicated (for instance in allowing for complex clusters of consonants to occur word-initially, finally, or medially) while in other languages such combinatory elaborations are non-existent. Yet, upon closer investigation of cross-linguistic data, there seems to be a number of generalizations that can be made about how sounds are grouped together. Given that such generalizations can be extracted from languages which appear to have rather varied surface structures, the next logical step would be to try and motivate such generalizations in a principled way. The question arises, then, as to what kind of theory best captures the basic structure of phonological architecture at the segmental level. While in the study of (morpho-)syntax there is a well-established concept of a system of principles and parameters, comprising the common core of innate knowledge known as Universal Grammar (UG), the study of phonology is often believed to be different and much less attention has been paid to developing a unifying set of principles and parameters which define the common core and potential variation in the architecture of phonological representations. This is actually rather surprising given the fact that the focus of attention in phonological theory has been on the representational aspect for so many years (from the mid-seventies to the early nineties). Despite the enormous progress which has been made in specific domains (such as foot structure), no overall parametric theory of phonological structure has emerged in mainstream generative phonology. In most textbooks and general studies, it still appears to be the case that different levels of phonological structure (segmental, syllabic, and

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higher up) are of a rather diverse formal character. Although segments, syllables and feet are usually all represented as tree-like objects, the formal properties of these trees (in terms of headedness, recursion, binarity of branching etc.) are taken to be very different by most phonologists. This chapter serves to outline an approach, called Head-Driven Phonology (HDP), in which the central claim is that phonological structure, at all levels of the hierarchical organization, is best characterized in terms of binary head/dependent relations. This approach incorporates proposals put forward within two closely related theories known as Dependency Phonology (DP; Anderson & Ewen 1987) and Government Phonology (GP; Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud 1990) and especially delineates the idea that some of the universal principles that have been proposed for syntax can also be claimed to relate to the phonological component (and vice versa). In this view then, phonology is not radically different from morpho-syntax. Contrary to the idea that the modularity of grammar entails the expectation that the modules are totally different formally, Anderson & Ewen (1987) introduce the Structural Analogy Hypothesis which expresses the initial expectation that morpho-syntax and phonology appeal to the same (or analogous) structural principles and parameters. Thus, this chapter disavows the claim that universal grammar is only synonymous with syntax and instead advocates the hypothesis that the notion of there being a universal grammar extends to the phonological component as well (cf. Ritter 1995). The HDP model, then, claims that phonology is driven by asymmetrical head/dependent relations and that such relations underlie phonological representations and are the key to understanding phonological processes. HDP-relations are manifested in terms of licensing mechanisms, which serve to authorize the units that comprise phonological representations. In this chapter, we focus on how head-driven phonology is equipped to analyze complex phonotactic patterns in terms of a highly restricted set of maximally binary head/dependent relations. We point out here that HDP, like DP and GP, is essentially a non-derivational, monostratal theory which also crucially incorporates the notion of parameters (Kaye 1995, van der Hulst & Ritter 1999, in prep.). Representations are well-formed within the range of parameter settings if all the principles and licensing mechanisms are satisfied. The chapter is structured in the following way. In section 2, we preface the discussion of our approach with a characterization of the basic tenets of dependency and government phonology. We do not make an attempt in this section to cover the full history of government/dependency phonology and also wish to make it clear from the onset that we do not feel committed to presenting these theories in any canonical way. This means that we choose our own wording in order to express our comprehension of the essence and insights of

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these theories. We then offer a description of our general approach which differs from DP and GP in various ways, trying to develop a typology of licensing mechanisms. In section 3, we turn our attention to applying HDP to a case study (drawing on van der Hulst & Ritter 1998): the phonotactic organization of minor syllables in Kammu. Finally, in section 4, a brief summary with conclusions is presented.

2. An outline of Head-Driven Phonology

The fundamental contribution of DP is the claim that phonological structure involves head/dependency relations at all levels of organization (including intrasegmental organization). Intrasegmental feature classes, segments themselves, syllabic constituents (like onsets and rhymes), syllables themselves, feet, phonological words, and so on are all depicted as headed constituents. In fact, it is explicitly stated (in the form of the structural analogy hypothesis mentioned in the previous section) that the notion of a headed, binary constituent structure defines what is in common between morpho-syntactic and phonological (often called prosodie) structure. GP takes a very similar perspective regarding both the structural analogy hypothesis and the organization of phonology proper. A major presentational or methodological difference between DP and GP is that much that is "implied" in DP is stated in a restricted manner and much more explicitly in GP. Additionally, GP seems to be an approach which incorporates the role of universal grammar into the phonological component more clearly than DP does (cf. Ritter 1995 for discussion). GP achieves this goal by providing a system of principles in conjunction with language-specific parameter settings which together define lexical items in an economical manner requiring minimal computation. In this way, a formal system is achieved for yielding well-formed representations from which the phonologies of individual languages can be construed.

2.1. Principles We formulate the central head/dependency relations as follows: (1)

Head/Dependency Principle: an object is either a head or a dependent; if a dependent, it can only exist if it is in a relationship with a head to which it is adjacent at some level.

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This principle, as it will be shown, subsumes all sorts of relations which are manifested in terms of (i) structural constituent relations of government (sisterhood), (ii) structural domination relations, and (iii) syntagmatic relations between elements that may or may not belong to different constituents: (2)

HD-relations i. Structural relation of government: (H

D)

ii. Structural (paradigmatic) relation of domination:

iii. Non-structural (syntagmatic) relation: (x

y) or > (the direction of the head-dependent relation may vary)

H I D χ)

(y >

(2ii) bears on the melodic content of skeletal positions and on the structural content of higher units. (2iii) will be argued to exist with reference to the content of skeletal positions only. Another principle which we claim is an innate and necessary part of UG is the Binarity Principle. (3)

Binarity Principle: all head/dependent relations are maximally binary.

The two principles in (1) and (3) allow for the presence of either a head alone, or a head and a dependent, but never a dependent alone, nor combinations of more than one head or more than one dependent. With reference to the latter situation we note especially that the ternary branching structures in (4) are ruled out (where H = head, d = dependent, and HP = constituent):1 (4)

a.

* HP d

H

b. d

*

HP H

d, d2

When, as in constituent structure, head/dependency relations are hierarchically layered, some unit that is a head can form a unit which is a dependent at a higher level. This recursion yields the effect of subsuming all material into a layered, hierarchical prosodie structure. In order to delimit the expanse of this recursive structure from continuing ad infinitum, it has been claimed that there is an upper limit to the number of domains or layers (Nespor & Vogel 1986).

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Starting from the smallest units, we adhere to the view that the prosodie hierarchy has at least the following layers: (5)

Xo

nucleus

foot

word

phrase

Observe that we do not include the 'syllable' in this hierarchy. The reasons for this will be discussed below. We do not wish to commit ourselves here to a view regarding levels of organization above the phonological phrase, concerning ourselves in this chapter with structures that occur at the lexical level. It follows from our two principles that a (phonological) word has the following maximal structure:2 (6)

Word level Foot level

Helsloot (1993, 1995) proposes that the word is a bounded constituent in precisely this sense, presenting an argument based on verse in Italian.3 We would now like to propose that the word in this sense equals what in GP is called the non-analytic domain (Kaye 1995), and what others have called the 'word-level' (cf. Chomsky & Halle 1968, Borowsky 1994). The object which we define as the overall head of the word domain, is the nucleus which projects as head at all levels up to the topmost node of the domain (shown as emboldened in 6). This (ultimate) head is the 'strongest', most viable head in the word, and, apparently as a result of this, a condition on its content exists, namely that its content is free, i.e. with no restrictions on its segmental material. Being free implies that there are no restrictions on what this head can dominate, in the sense that any vocalic segment can appear in this position. It thus becomes the site for maximal contrast (cf. Dresher & van der Hulst 1995, 1998). It also follows from being free that the possibility of this ultimate head (UH) being empty never exists since, as will be discussed in section 2.4 below, the justification of an empty position is controlled by licensing mechanisms. Other nucleic heads, however, while heads in themselves, are directly or indirectly dependent on the UH, thus allowing for the possibility (but not the necessity) of the content of these other nucleic heads to be restricted or to be empty. Heads of feet, though typically strong, do not necessarily show all contrasts. When the foot is not the strongest foot in the word, as our case study in section 3 will show, heads of structurally dependent feet can, in fact, be very restricted, showing no possibility for contrast at all (cf. also Ritter 1998a).

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It follows from the above that words of more than four syllables must consist of more than one phonological word.4 A simplex word like hippopotamus, with five syllables, forms, if we are right, two phonological words (as in 7):5

(Here, and henceforth, '[0]' underneath a skeletal point or zero-level position indicates that the position does not dominate content and is inaudible.) Our approach postulates feet that do not bear stress (such as the final foot in 7) which implies that we do not assume a one-to-one relationship between being the head of a foot and bearing stress. The phenomenon of stress is a phonetic interpretation of metrical structure and it is consistent to say that, for example, only contentful heads of branching feet bear stress. The foot status of monosyllabic feet is evidenced by facts concerning the aspiration of stops and the occurrence of /h/ (italicized), which both have been claimed to be dependent on initial position in the foot (examples from Davis 1999):6 (8)

b.

a.

Phr W

F I X wi ne Ta ra

F F ι pe hu

κ sau kee ma ra

X I F F pa ho

ci ri

fie zon

We realize that our view on (lexical) prosodie structure needs more justification than we can give here and we refer the reader to van der Hulst & Ritter (in prep.) for that. The claim made here suggests that, in general, analyses appealing to "unbounded iteration of foot structure" cannot be correct unless we assume that the

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resulting structure (as in the case of hippopotamus) contains more than one phonological word. Occasionally, the metrical literature has appealed to such intermediate structures. The analysis that Hayes (1995) proposes for Passamaquoddy groups syllables into feet, feet into 'cola' (singular colon), and cola into a word. In our theory, the cola are prosodie words and the resulting structure is a prosodie phrase; cf. van der Hulst (1997). Another consequence of our view is that neither 'ternary feet' nor 'unbounded feet' can exist. This raises interesting issues with respect to the prosodie structure of words in languages with so-called ternary rhythms and socalled unbounded word accent. Here we will simply assume that ternary feet can be analyzed in terms of combinations of two feet (i.e. as prosodie words, as in the example above). Van der Hulst (1997) applies this analysis to ternary systems of the iambic type. Rifkin (1999) argues for prosodie word status of dactylic feet. With respect to one variety of unbounded systems, lexical accent systems, Revithiadou (1999) has shown that there is, in fact, no need for unbounded constituents since lexical accents (for example in Russian) appear in positions which only allow the formation of well-formed phonological words. Yoshida (1995) proposes a bounded approach to another system that has been claimed to be unbounded, lexical accent structure in Standard Japanese (cf. Ritter 1998a).

2.2. Licensing mechanisms The principles of head/dependency and binarity defined above work together and are manifested in a variety of forms of licensing, exemplified in (2). We will now discuss these types of licensing in more detail.

2.2.1. The structural relation of government

(sisterhood)

Structural relations of sisterhood are the framework for hierarchical constituent structure. In this type of head-dependent relation known as 'government', a head is able to project a constituent by virtue of its potential to form a governing domain with an adjacent sister dependent. Anticipating a discussion of the types of rhyme structure that government phonology allows, (9) gives two branching configurations. (9a) is an illustration of sisterhood, i.e. the first node that dominates the head also dominates the dependent. Let us call this minimal c-command. Example (9b) illustrates a context in which minimal c-command does not obtain since the intermediate node H' does not dominate both the head (H) and the dependent (D). Whether c-command is met or not, however, there

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is a head-dependency relation in both cases which satisfies both the principles of head/dependency and binarity in that, in each of the two cases, the dependent unit is in an adjacent binary relationship with its head:

GP allows both structures in (9) as possible rhyme structures. (10a) characterizes long vowels, while (10b) is a rhyme constituent which contains a short vowel and a closing consonant:

In section 2.2.1.5, we will argue that we can do without the structures in (9,10b)7 and thus that minimal c-command is a necessary condition on branching structures. The structural governing relation which only allows binary relations between sisters ultimately yields a universal structural schema of the onset (O) and rhyme (R) units, the foot, the word, etc., and in so doing, specifies the notion of the well-formedness of each of these constituents and how they relate to one another. Example (11) illustrates the hierarchical architecture, based on this notion of government relations, up to the word level: (11)

O" oVo°)

Ο" N° (N°)

Ν" I Ν

Ο"

Ν" I Ν

Ο"

N" I Ν

(Here and henceforth we use < to represent a head/dependent relationship.) The special relationship between O" and N" is discussed in section 2.2.1.2. We will first start with the lowest level, the zero-level of the hierarchy. With respect to the higher levels of the foot and word, we have already established in

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section 2.1 that ternary and unbounded structures are disallowed, and we have also suggested how apparent occurrences of such structures can be analyzed without appealing to non-binary constituents. In the following discussion, we will make it clear where our views deviate from GP.

2.2.1.1. The skeleton Beginning, then, from the terminal points, it should be noted that in our approach we notationally replace the traditional notion of skeleton (a string of socalled x-positions) with 'zero' positions. The zero-level units (such as are visible to the phonology and as such are subject to principles of headedness, binarity and a third principle, the Empty Category Principle (ECP), which we discuss in section 2.4.4. This zero-level unit dominates segmental expressions (mediated, in our approach, by a 'root node' which dominates phonological elements) and also encodes the notion of timing in order to differentiate between long and short segments (cf. section 2.2.1.6 on long vowels). Constituents which do not have zero-level terminal heads merely serve as representative cognitive placeholders in the structural schema but do not contribute to any interpretation per se. They could just as readily be left out of the representation. For instance, words which begin with a vowel on the surface and also phonologically behave as vowel-initial will have a structure in which the initial onset constituent may be representationally present but its zero-level head will not be present, as in the French word ami 'friend' (masc. sing.) illustrated in (12) below (cf. Tranel 1987): (12)

Ο"

Ν" I N°

Ο" I 0°

N" I N°

a

m

i

(Here, and elsewhere, we suppress the intermediate N'-level, which we will get rid of entirely in section 2.2.1.5.) Since the initial onset constituent contains no zero-level position, i.e. no head, it lacks the component which the computational system recognizes as necessary to make an object visible to the phonological system. Consequently, the lexical item in (12) is phonologically construed as vowel-initial. In cases, however, where an initial onset is claimed to be phonologically relevant, although it lacks any segmental content and appears silent on the surface, the onset constituent is headed by a zero-level position (0°). Constituents which project from a zero-level head are subject to the aforementioned principles, since being at the zero-level identifies these objects as being phonologically

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

relevant to enter into licensing relations. Example (13) gives an illustrative representation of the phenomenon that has been described as h-aspiré in French, in which apparent vowel-initial words act as if they begin with a consonant, as with haricot 'bean' below. 0" 1 1

Ν"

0"

Ν"

0"

ι

I

ι

I

o°

m

J· a

r

i

k

Ν" 1 N° Ρ

0

Thus a contrast with respect to the presence or absence of the zero-level head is claimed to exist in the case of onsets which accounts for the variance in phonological relevancy of onset constituents which appear silent on the surface. Whereas nuclei can co-occur with onsets that lack a zero-level position, it is not our position that the reverse situation is possible. In fact, we claim that onsets cannot occur with nuclei that lack a zero-level head. We derive this from the fact, discussed in the next section below, that onsets can only be prosodically anchored by being adjoined to a nucleus that is itself phonologically viable (i.e. has a zero-level head). This stems from the assumption that prosodie anchoring is a necessary condition for the interpretability of onsets and that prosodie viability implies the existence of phonological visibility. Since a nucleus lacking a zero-level position itself would not be visible to the phonology and thus could not be a potential recipient of phonetic interpretation, such a nucleus could not occur and therefore could not be an anchor for an onset. As a result, nuclei (as opposed to onsets) always have zero-level head positions.8

2.2.1.2. How do onsets fit in? GP represents syllabic constituents like onsets and rhymes in sequence on a single tier or plane, as in (11). These two units do not form a syllabic constituent which GP rejects (cf. Brockhaus, this volume). In this section, we present the somewhat different view that is adopted in HDP. Since onsets can be missing at the zero-level, they are not calculated, whether present or not, as being phonologically relevant in creating the prosodie structure. As a result, onsets seem to somehow stand outside of the prosodie hierarchy. In our approach, we represent this by also rejecting the syllable as a constituent in the prosodie structure. Lexically, there is a head-dependency relation between an onset and a nucleus, which we will refer to as 'anchoring' (or more neutrally: adjunction). This adjunction relation could be considered as creating an interface level between two planes, similar to the way Semitic rootand-pattern languages operate. In the case of the onset-nuclear interface, the

Head-Driven Phonology

123

nuclear plane is the core which bears the notion of prosody, and the onset plane serves to demarcate prosodie peaks and carries with it some notion of semantic content. Example (14) illustrates this concept:

We assume, with government phonology, that every nucleus must be preceded by an onset (and vice versa)9, but we place the two units on different planes to more clearly express that onsets do not partake in the prosodie hierarchy. We advance an observation here regarding reduction processes that, to our mind, has not been made in the literature before, and which strongly supports the idea that onsets do not form part of the prosodie hierarchy. It is well-known that vowels may reduce in weak metrical positions. One aspect of reduction is shortening or monophthongization. English is a clear case in point. However, reduction never seems to involve the change from branching onsets to simple onsets. In a pair like photograph - photography we note that the vowel of /graef/ reduces in the second form, while the cluster /gr/ remains in tact. Reduction fails to effect onsets, because reduction is triggered by occurring in strong or weak positions which are defined in terms of the prosodie hierarchy. Onsets do not partake in the prosodie hierarchy.10

2.2.1.3. Coda licensing Government phonology, as we have seen in (10), repeated here as (15), makes a distinction between branching nuclei and branching rhymes: (15) a.

R

X

b.

X

R

X

X

The 'coda' is analyzed as a specifier at the rhymal level. It is argued in Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud (1990) and Kaye (1990, 1995), that the 'coda' is not a constituent in itself because it cannot branch (i.e. there seems to be no empiri-

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

cal need for postulating branching codas)11. Since this coda position is removed by one projection (namely N) from the nuclear head and thus not an immediate sister of the nuclear head, the coda position is not minimally c-commanded by the nuclear head, as pointed out in section 2.2.1. Because the coda position is not minimally c-commanded, one could conclude that the relevant structure is simply ill-formed (a position that we will take in section 2.2.1.5). In GP, a milder position is adopted: the coda position is allowed, but it needs extra licensing. This is the way in which we view what Kaye (1990) calls Coda Licensing. According to this condition, a coda can only occur if followed by an onset which 'licenses' it: (16)

R

O

Ν X

X




Ρ

[0]

X

-

(government licensing not possible) NI I1 X

0 Ι1 X

N2 I1 X

a

1

[0]

0 I1 X

N3 Ι1 X

Ρ [0] -H(PG not possible)

To account for languages of type II, which allow VVC and VCC finally, in which case N3 is at the end of the word, we must postulate that word-final

Head-Driven Phonology

131

empty nuclei (unlike medial empty nuclei) do have the power to governmentlicense, and to properly govern; cf. section 2.2.1.4 and note 16. Word-fmal long vowels are still prohibited because there simply is no following nucleus to government-license the head of the long vowel. 7

2.2.1.7. Do we need coda licensing? Having abandoned the difference in (15), we must review the evidence for coda licensing, i.e. the claim that a 'coda' consonant must be followed by an onset, barring the occurrence of domain-final consonants. A first observation we make is that the licensing relationship between a coda and following onset could be generalized by stating that each dependent (whether in the nucleus or in the onset) must be licensed by a following audible head. We have seen in section 2.2.1.4 that Charette (1990) proposes a principle (license-to-govern) which, among others, demands that an onset dependent can only occur when its head is licensed-to-govern its dependent by a following nuclear head (cf. 20). We argue in section 2.2.3 that the required result in this case can be derived from a (syntagmatic) licensing relation (as shown in 28a) that subsumes the coda licensing relation (displayed in 28b).This means that all zero-level positions are now formally 'linked', as shown in (28c), either in terms of left-headed government (—>) or in terms of right-headed interconstituent syntagmatic licensing (



Assuming that the coda position can contain glides (or approximants), liquids, nasals and left-halves of geminates, and adopting coda licensing as a necessary relation, we enforce that word-finally, glides, liquids and nasals must be onsets followed by an empty silent nucleus (cf. 29a). Final geminates would of course necessarily involve a final empty nucleus (29b):

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Harry van der Hülst & Nancy A. Ritter

N" 1 Ν

O"

N"

1 0°

1 Ν

a

{g, U }

m

b.

Ν"

0"

Ν"

Ν

0°

J·

a

cch mch '(exp.) small'. Intrusive stop insertion could be a way of strengthening the governing onset by maximizing its structure since the ability of the major syllable onset to govern as a simple onset is impossible due to its being more sonorous than its dependent nasal onset.

References Anderson, J.M. & C.J. Ewen 1987 Principles of Dependency Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Borowsky, T. 1994 On the word level. In E. Kaisse & S. Hargus (eds), Studies in lexical phonology. New York: Academic Press, 199-234. Charette, M. 1990 License to govern. Phonology 7, 233-53. Chomsky, Ν. & M. Halle 1968 The sound pattern ofEnglish. New York: Harper & Row. Davis, S. 1999 On the distribution of /h/ and aspirated stops in American English. Ms. Indiana University. Paper presented at HILP 4 (Jan. 28-30, 1999). Diffloth, G. 1976 Minor-syllable vocalism in Senoic languages. In P.N. Jenner, L.C. Thompson & S. Starosta (eds.), Austroasiatic studies Part I. University Press of Hawaii, 229247. Dresher, E. & H.G. van der Hulst 1995 Head-dependent asymmetries in phonology. In H.G. van der Hulst & J.M. van de Weijer (eds ), Leiden in Last. HIL Phonology Papers I. HIL Publications 1. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics, 401-431. 1998 Head-dependency in phonology: complexity and visibility. Phonology 15/3. Golston, C. & H.G. van der Hulst 1999 Stricture and structure. Minimalism in phonology. In B. Hermans & M. van Oostendorp (eds.), The derivational residue. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Guerssel, M. 1990 On the syllabification pattern of Berber. Ms. Université du Québec à Montréal. Harris, J. 1990 Segmental complexity and phonological government. Phonology 7, 255-300. 1994 English sound structure. Oxford & Cambridge: Blackwell. Hayes, B P. 1995 Metrical stress theory: principles and case studies. Chicago: University of Chicago press. Helsloot, K. 1993 The prosodie word: an endless domain. Proceedings 17. Institute of phonetic sciences, University of Amsterdam, 129-146. 1995 Metrical prosody. A template-and-constraint approach to phonological phrasing in Italian. HIL dissertation 16. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. Hulst, H.G. van der 1984 Syllable structure and stress in Dutch. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. 1995 Radical CV Phonology: The categorial gesture. In J. Durand & F. Katamba (eds.), Frontiers of Phonology. Atoms, structures, derivations. Essex: Longman, Harlow, 80-116. 1996 Radical CV phonology: The segment - syllable connection. In: J. Durand & Β. Laks (eds.). Current trends in phonology: Models and methods. Vol. 1. CNRS/ESRI Paris X, 333-363. 1997 Primary accent is non-metrical. Rivista di Linguistica 8. 1999 Features, segments and syllables in radical CV phonology. In J. Rennison (ed.), Phonologica J996. Syllables!? The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. in press Structure paradoxes in phonology. In Festschrift. in prep. Principles of Radical CV phonology. Ms. HIL.

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Hülst, H G. van der & A. van Engelenhoven 1995 Metathesis effects in Leti. In H.G. van der Hülst & J.M. van de Weijer (eds.), Leiden in Last. HIL Phonology Papers I. HIL Publications 1. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics, 243-267. Hulst, H.G. van der & M. Klamer 1996 Reduplication in Leti. In C. Cremers & M. den Dikken (eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 1996. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 109-120. [Also appeared in M. Pearson (ed.), Recent papers in Austronesian Linguistics. UCLA occasional papers in linguistics 21, 1998, 147-158.] Hulst, H.G. van der & Ν. Α. Ritter 1998 Kammu minor syllables in Head-Driven Phonology. In E. Cyran (ed.), Structure and Interpretation. Studies in Phonology. Lublin: Folium, 163-182. 1999 No sympathy for opacity. Ms. HIL. in prep. The syntax of segments. Monograph. HIL/Leiden University. Hulst, H.G. van der & G.J. Rowicka 1997 On some parallels between unrealized empty nuclei and unstressed syllables. In G.E. Booij & J.M. van de Weijer (eds ). Phonology in progress - progress in phonology. HIL phonology papers III. HIL publications 5. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics, 125-149. Kaye, J.D. 1986 Government in phonology: the case of Moroccan Arabic. The linguistic review 6, 131-59. 1990 "Coda" licensing. Phonology 7, 301-30. 1992 Do you believe in magic? The story of s+C sequences. SOAS working papers in linguistics and phonetics 2, 293-313. 1995 Derivations and interfaces. In: J. Durand & F. Katamba (eds.), Frontiers in phonology: Atoms, structures, derivations. Essex: Longman, Harlow, 289-332. Kaye, J. & J. Lowenstamm 1984 De la syllabicité. In F. Dell, D. Hirst & J.-R. Vergnaud (eds.). Forme sonore du langage. Paris: Hermann, 123-59 Kaye, J., J. Lowenstamm & J.-R. Vergnaud 1985 The internal structure of phonological elements, a theory of charm and government. Phonology yearbook 2, 305-28. 1990 Constituent structure and government in phonology. Phonology 7, 193-232. Liberman, M. & A.S. Prince 1977 On stress and linguistic rhythm. Linguistic inquiry 8, 249-336. Lowenstamm, J. 1996 CV as the only syllable type. In J. Durand & Β. Laks (eds.), Current trends in phonology. Models and methods. Vol 2. CNRS, ESRI, Paris X, 419-43. Nespor, M. & I. Vogel 1986 Prosodie phonology. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. Murray, R. & T. Vennemann 1987 Sound change and syllable structure in Germanic phonology. Language 59, 51428.

Piggott, G.L. 1991 Apocope and the licensing of empty-headed syllables. The linguistic review 8, 287-318. Polgárdi, Κ. 1998 Vowel harmony. An account in terms of government and optimality. HIL/LOT dissertation 3. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.

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Revithiadou, A. 1999 Headmost accent wins. Head dominance and ideal prosodie form in lexical accent systems. LOT/HIL dissertation 15. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. Rifkin, J. 1999 Temarity is prosodie word binarity. Ms. ΜΓΓ. Paper presented at HILP 4 (Jan. 28-30, 1999). Ritter, N.A. 1995 The role of Universal Grammar in phonology: a Government Phonology approach to Hungarian. PhD dissertation. New York: New York University. 1998a Review of Y. Yoshida's dissertation 'On pitch accent phenomena in Standard Japanese'. GLOTInternational 3/6, 14-17. 1998b The unifying effects of proper government in Hungarian. In C. de Groot & I. Kenesei (eds), Approaches to Hungarian, vol 6. Szeged: JATE, 41-60. in press The effects of intrasegmental licensing. In M. Davenport & S.-J. Hannahs (eds.), Proceedings of the Durham workshop on phonological structure. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. Ritter, N.A. & R M. Vago 1999 Subsyllabic constituency in Hungarian: implications for moraic phonology and government phonology. In J. Rennison (ed.), Phonologica J996. Syllables!? The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. Rowicka, G.J. 1999a On trochaic proper government. In J. Rennison (ed.) Phonologica 1996: Syllables!?. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. 1999b Ghost vowels. A strict CV approach. LOT/HIL dissertation 16. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. Scheer, T. 1996 A unified model of proper government. PhD dissertation. University of Paris. 1998 A unified model of proper government. The linguistic review 15/1, 41-68. Shaw, P. 1993 The prosodie constituency in minor syllables. In E. Duncan, D. Farkas & P. Spaelti (eds.), The proceedings of the 12th west coast conference on formal linguistics, 117-132. Smalley, W.A. 1961 Outline ofKhmu? structure. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society. Svantesson, J. 1983 Kammu phonology and morphology. CWK Gleerup. Torre, E.-J. van der 1998 sC-onset clusters and a new approach to rhymal adjuncts in government phonology. Master's thesis. University of Leiden. Tranel, B. 1987 The sounds of French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vijver, R. van den 1995 The iambic issue. Iambs as a result of constraint interaction. HIL dissertation 37. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. Vennemann, T. 1991 Syllable structure and syllable cut prosodies in Modern Standard German. In P. Bertinetto et al. (eds.), Certamen phonologicum II. Torino: Rosenberg & Selier, 211-244.

7

The syllable in German: Exploring an alternative

Wiebke Brockhaus

1. Introduction

This chapter is concerned with the role of the syllable in the phonology of German. It takes as its point of departure the general arguments in favor of the syllable which are summarized in Kenstowicz (1994: 250) and then asks whether these arguments aie really as compelling as is widely thought. What emerges from the discussion is that referring to a syllable node is not necessarily the only, or perhaps the best, strategy for dealing with certain phonological phenomena. Alternatives are available. Specifically, I try to show that a framework such as Government Phonology has the potential for handling the relevant constraints and events in terms of universal principles and parameters which never mention the syllable. Language-specific facts can be captured through the settings of a relatively small number of parameters, without the need for devices such as language-specific sonority hierarchies or syllable schémas, which are in no way constrained by Universal Grammar. By the same token, the problems caused by the excessive power or destructive nature of extrasyllabicity and resyllabification vanish completely, as neither strategy is needed in the grammar. The chapter is organized as follows. In section 2, I briefly review the three main reasons for positing the syllable as a phonological unit. How the facts of German can be dealt with under the assumptions discussed in section 2 is the topic of section 3. Here, I provide data illustrating some of the most important distributional facts and phonological processes which have been related to the syllable in previous work. Specifically, I consider these matters in the light of the most recent, and one of the most detailed studies of the phonology of German currently available, viz. Wiese (1996). The theoretical framework of Wiese's study is "a combination of Lexical Phonology, non-linear phonology, and underspecification theory" (Wiese 1996: 4). In section 4, I give a very brief introduction to another framework, that of Government Phonology, which makes no reference to the syllable. I return to Wiese's account of the syllable in German in section 5, and show that a way of handling the same data, and covering a great deal more empirical ground besides, can be developed using Government Phonology. The chapter is concluded in section 6.

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Wiebke Brockhaus

2. General arguments in favor of the syllable

In this section, I very briefly review the role of the syllable in recent phonological theory and the most important reasons for positing a syllable constituent. For most phonologists today, there is very little need to provide detailed arguments for the syllable as a unit of phonological analysis. Although the specifics of the internal organization of the syllable may still be a matter for debate, a general consensus concerning the need for the syllable per se has existed for some time. As observed by Blevins (1995), the syllable has been recognized by phonologists for much of this century, although SPE (= Chomsky & Halle 1968), the seminal work in generative phonology, officially denied its existence. However, even the authors of SPE themselves were unable to follow this policy through, and repeatedly made reference to the syllable, at least informally. 1 This rejection of the syllable as a formal unit led to unnecessary complications of rules, among other things, and was soon exposed as a weakness of generative phonology by researchers such as Anderson (1969), Fudge (1969), Vennemann (1972), Hooper (1972) and Kahn (1976), who paved the way for the return of the syllable. Today, both textbooks (such as Carr 1993, Roca 1994, Kenstowicz 1994 and Spencer 1996) and publications intended for the research community (such as Goldsmith 1995) contain sizeable sections or entire chapters on the syllable, bearing witness to the fact that "syllable structure is considered indispensable for expressing many phonological generalizations" (Carr 1993: 195). The main arguments which have led to this position are conveniently summarized in Kenstowicz (1994: 250) and can be stated as in (1). (1) The syllable is a useful concept in phonology, for three main reasons: a. It is a natural domain for the statement of many phonotactic constraints; b. Phonological rules are often more simply and insightfully expressed if they explicitly refer to the syllable2; c. Several phonological processes are best interpreted as methods to ensure that the string of phonological segments is parsable into syllables. There are numerous examples illustrating each of these three points which can be gleaned from the facts of German, and it is to these facts that we turn in the next section.

The syllable in German

171

3. The syllable in Standard German

The first part of this section provides a short pre-theoretical survey of some syllable-related facts of Modern Standard German {Hochlautung). In the light of several sets of data, I will consider the structure of the German onset and rhyme, and discuss some of the most important distributional restrictions and phonological processes. The second part of the section summarizes how the facts described in the first part have been dealt with in a detailed recent study (Wiese 1996).

3.1. A pre-theoretical survey of the facts (Standard) German, like many other Indo-European languages, has a rather complex syllable structure, which, in many respects, is very similar to that of English. To discuss the details of this, I assume a fairly widely adopted structure,3 viz. the one shown in (2), illustrated by the German word plant ([plaint] '(he/she/it) plans'). (2)

σ ^ O

χ

R

χ

χ

χ

χ

χ

I

I

ν

I

I

ρ

1

a

η

t

The representation in (2) implies that the syllable (σ) is divided into two main parts, the onset (O) at the left edge and the rhyme (R) at the right. The rhyme can be further subdivided into nucleus (N) and coda (C). The skeletal units used here are x's, rather than C's and V's, 4 but nothing in the present chapter depends on this choice. In the following paragraphs, I first of all investigate German onsets.5 For this purpose, as for the discussion of rhymes which follows later, I omit those which only occur in readily identifiable, unassimilated foreign borrowings.6 German, like English, permits single-segment onsets, two-member onsets, and threemember onsets. It also exhibits what could be thought of as empty onsets.7 Two examples of each type are given in (3), beginning with the 'empty' onsets.

172

(3)

Wiebke Brockhaus

a. b. c. d.

Ehrung Tasche Traum Spruch

[e:Kuq] [taja] [teaum] [fpKux]

'honour' 'bag' 'dream' 'saying'

Alter Haus Pflicht Streit

[alte] [haus] [pfliçt] [Jteait]

'age' 'house' 'duty' 'quarrel'

The cases in (3a) and (3b) need not concern us further, whereas those in (3c) and, particularly, in (3d) are discussed in detail later in the chapter. The table in (4) provides a comprehensive survey of all two-member onset clusters occurring in native vocabulary. It shows that two-member onset clusters consist of an obstruent (specifically, a plosive or a voiceless fricative or affricate) occupying the first slot and, typically, a liquid filling the second. There are a few cases, though, where a nasal ([n] or [m]) or a fricative/glide ([v])8 is found in the C 2 slot. After [J], even a plosive ([p] or [t]) can occur here. (4) κ

1

Ρ t

+

+

-

+

-

k

+

b

k

ν

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

+

-

-

-

+

-

+

+

+

-

-

-

-

-

-

d

+

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

g

+

+

-

-

-

-

-

+

pf ts

+

+

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

+

-

-

f

+

+

-

-

-

-

-

-

J

+

+

+

+

-

+

+

+

C2:

t

Ρ

m

η

C,:

b.

In three-member onsets, Q is a voiceless sibilant, as in English (although German has [J] rather than [s]). The second member is a (voiceless) plosive (except [k])9 and the third a liquid. The three-member onset clusters can then be summarized as in (5), with the proviso that *[Jtl] is excluded, because of a prohibition on *[tl], (5) C, J

C2 C3 {p,t} {*,!}

The syllable in German

173

Having considered the possibilities for the German onset, we now turn to the rhyme. Although there may be arguments for a further subdivision into nucleus and coda, as shown in (2), there is a strong interaction between the two, so that it makes sense to discuss them together. If, for the time being, we adopt as simplistic a view of the rhyme as we did of the onset, we can identify German rhymes in a very straightforward way. All we need to do is to take monosyllabic words and remove their onsets. Everything that remains must be part of the rhyme. Under this assumption (which, like the claim that word-initial clusters necessarily constitute onsets, is exposed as false in section 5), we can conclude only that German has very complex rhymes, with short vowels being followed by up to five consonants, as in the gen. sg. form Herbsts (/herpsts/ [heçpsts],10 'autumn'). Long vowels, as one would expect, can be followed by maximally four consonants, e.g. in Obsts ([o:psts], 'fruit'), which is also a gen. sg. form.11 If we assume that vowels occupy the nucleus, while consonants are dominated by the coda constituent, we can cite at least three examples of coda constraints. The first and most well-known of these is probably that the voicing contrast in obstruents is neutralized here. Specifically, only voiceless obstruents may occur in a syllable coda. The special status of the coda also manifests itself in the fact that consonantal [κ] is typically vocalized to [ç]. Thirdly, in Northern Standard German,12 underlying /g/ is devoiced and spirantized to [ç] or [x] when occurring in the coda. These constraints give rise to alternations both word-internally and word-finally, although the examples in (6) illustrate the word-final environment only. (6)

a. Final devoicing Tag 'day' brav 'good' halb 'half '

[ta:k] [taiga] [bKa:f] [biraiva] [halp] [halba]

b. /r/-vocalization ihr 'their' stur 'stubborn' wirr 'confused'

[ire] [ί:κο] [Jturg] [JtuiBs] [vie] [νικο]

Tage brave halbe

ihre sture wirre

c. /g/-spirantization (Northern Standard German) Tag 'day' [tax] [taiga] Tage Flug 'flight' [flu:x] [flyigo] Flüge Sieg 'victory' [zi:ç] [zi:ga] Siege

'days' 'good' (nom. pl.) 'half (nom. pl.)

'their' (nom. pl.) 'stubborn' (nom. pl.) 'confused' (nom. pl.)

'days' 'flights' 'victories'

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Wiebke Brockhaus

3.2. Wiese's approach to the syllable in German 3.2.1. Phonotactic constraints In this section, I explore how Wiese (1996) deals with the various issues arising in the context of syllable structure in German. I have chosen to present his approach to these issues before my own because the combination of frameworks (Lexical Phonology, non-linear phonology and underspecification theory) he employs is based on widely accepted ideas and takes advantage of machinery used throughout much of the current literature. Taking Wiese's account first, thus offers a straightforward way into the discussion and makes the chapter more accessible. I begin by examining Wiese's proposals for dealing with some of the distributional restrictions outlined in section 3.1. In section 3.2.2, I consider how he handles apparently syllable-related phonological processes such as final devoicing, and in section 3.2.3 I review his account of a process which seems to be required to make syllabification possible. Wiese, following a well-established tradition, proposes to capture the syllable-related phonotactic facts of German with reference to a language-specific syllable schema working in conjunction with a language-specific sonority hierarchy. The maximal expansion of this syllable schema is shown in (7), and the sonority hierarchy appears in (8). The idea is that the nucleus of each syllable constitutes a sonority peak, while the other segments belonging to the same syllable are arranged according to a falling sonority profile from the nucleus outwards. In other words, Wiese views this issue along the lines of the Sonority Sequencing Generalization (SSG) in (9).13 (7)

Wiese 's (1996: 47, 54f.) core syllable schema (example: Thron 'throne ') σ

(8)

C

C

t

ν

/\

V

c

c

o

η

Wiese 's (1996: 260) sonority hierarchy for German:

obstruents

nasals

1

κ

high vowels

vowels

The syllable in German

(9)

175

Sonority Sequencing Generalization (Selkirk 1984: 116) In any syllable, there is a segment constituting a sonority peak that is preceded and/or followed by a sequence of segments with progressively decreasing sonority values.

Although both the syllable schema in (7) and the sonority hierarchy for German in (8) together go quite a long way towards generating only the well-formed syllables discussed in section 3.1, they also create some problems. The most serious of these is perhaps that certain attested onsets and rhymes (or nucleuscoda sequences under Wiese's approach) cannot be accommodated. Beginning with onsets, the three-member clusters in (3d) are the most obvious example of this. On the face of it, these clusters are incompatible with (7), (8) and (9), for two reasons. Firstly, they simply do not fit into the two slots to the left of the nucleus provided for in (7). Secondly, the J + plosive cluster which constitutes the CiC2-sequence could be seen as involving a falling (rather than rising) sonority profile towards the syllable peak, at least according to several sonority hierarchies put forward in the literature.14 Wiese (1996: 259f.), following Clements (1990) and Hall (1992a, b), however, groups all obstruents together, so that a sonority plateau, rather than a sonority slope, exists. Still, even such a plateau is excluded by the SSG. To solve these problems, Wiese makes the following proposals, which allow him to kill both birds with the same stone. He (1996: 43) assumes that J + plosive clusters are not sequences of two distinct segments but complex single segments which constitute mirror images of affricates. For this reason, he terms them SUFFRICATES,15 and an example of a word beginning with a suffricate is given in (10). (10) Wiese 's (1996: 43) representation of Spruch™ σ C C A I J ρ κ

V I υ

C I χ

Wiese provides three arguments in support of this approach. Firstly, affricates and suffricates are very similar in their distribution. Secondly, allowing complex segments consisting of a plosive + fricative sequence only in that order would require a costlier statement in the grammar than permitting both this particular order and its converse. Finally, historical evidence of s + plosive clusters behaving differently from 'ordinary' onsets may also be worth bearing

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Wiebke Brockhaus

in mind.17 For example, in Gothic, which Wiese (1996: 43) claims to be among the "historic precursors of German", s + plosive clusters are fully reduplicated, whereas typical branching onsets are not. Having seen how Wiese deals with the problems arising at the left edge of the German syllable, we can now focus on the right edge. Consider the data in (11), mostly taken from Wiese (1996: 48). (11) a. lehn+t Schal+s lehn+st glaub+t Laub+s glaub+st b. Jagd Herbst Haupt

[le:nt] [Jails] [lernst]

'(he/she/it) leans' 'scarf (gen. sg.) '(you, sg. fam.) lean'

[glaupt] [laups] [glaupst]

'(he/she/it) believes' 'foliage' (gen. sg.) '(you, sg. fam.) believe'

[ja:kt] [heepst] [haupt]

'hunt' 'autumn' 'head'

Markt Obst

[magkt] [o:pst]

'market' 'fruit'

Again, Wiese's core syllabification machinery seems inadequate. The syllable schema in (7) has only three slots available to accommodate up to five segments. However, it is striking that no phonotactic constraints appear to hold between the coronal obstruents occurring close to or at the right edge of the syllable and the segments to their left. This suggests that treating the coronals as extrasyllabic may be an appropriate solution. Specifically, Wiese (1996: 48) argues "that German allows an extrasyllabic coronal obstruent word-finally". Bearing in mind that the /st/ cluster is to be interpreted as a complex segment, this statement seems sufficient for handling the data in (II). 18 Extrasyllabic consonants may then be adjoined by the rule in (12), which applies late in the derivation. Alternatively, extrasyllabic consonants, which only occur wordfinally, could be adjoined to the word node. (12)

Wiese 's (1996: 56) obstruent adjunction

σ

C

C

V

C

C

C

[+obstruent]

rule

The syllable in German

177

Extrasyllabicity, however, may be required not only at the right edge. Wiese (1996: 264) also hints that extrasyllabicity at the left edge could be the best way to deal with initial J" + sonorant clusters. The argument for this goes as follows. German, like a number of other Indo-European languages, has branching onsets, but does not, on the whole, permit sequences of homorganic segments to occupy the positions within such onsets. So, the onset clusters in (13a) are wellformed, but the ones in (13b) are not. The two clusters in (13c), however, do not conform to the general pattern, in that they are common in native German words and yet are homorganic. Wiese suggests that positing extrasyllabic [J] would capture this special status. (13) Examples of well-formed and ill-formed onset clusters (based on Wiese 1996: 262f.) a. [pi, ρκ, tK, kl, ICK, kv, kn, bl, b», dn, gl, G K ] [pfK, pfl, fl, fk, Jk, Jm, jv] b. *[pm, ti, tn, kq, bm, dl, dn, gq] *[pfm, fm] c. Problematic cases: [Jl, Jn]

3.2.2. Processes best expressed with reference to the syllable Having seen how some of the most important phonotactic constraints can be dealt with in terms of syllable structure, we can now turn to phonological processes. Specifically, we can consider examples of phonological processes in German which are best captured in terms of the syllable (motivation (lb) in section 2). Without a doubt, the most well-known and most widely cited syllable-related phonological process in German is final devoicing.19 The effects of this event were already illustrated in (6a) and in Wiese's account are handled by the final devoicing rule in (14). This rule stipulates that a [+voice] specification is delinked from any obstruent occurring immediately to the left of a syllable boundary.20 The [-voice] specification can then be filled in by default.

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Wiebke Brockhaus

(14) Wiese 's (1996: 204) final devoicing rule R: [+obstruent] Laryngeal [+voice]

Wiese (1996: 206-209, 252-258) also proposes several rules to deal with the two other phonological processes resulting from coda constraints (viz. /r/-vocalization and /g/-spirantization), but lack of space precludes me from discussing these.

3.2.3. Processes which make syllabification possible Before concluding this brief survey of some of Wiese's proposals for the German syllable, we need to consider a phonological process which can be interpreted as a method for ensuring that a string of segments can be parsed into syllables (motivation (lc) in section 2). Wiese argues that there are roots which require schwa epenthesis for syllabification to be successful (e.g. /handl/ 'to act' and /ru:dr/ 'to row'). Schwa epenthesis in such cases proceeds according to the rule in (15). Part (a) of this rule states that a skeletal position is inserted to the left of an unsyllabified position which itself immediately precedes a prosodie word boundary. Part (b) only illustrates what is handled by more general statements about underspecification elsewhere in the grammar, viz. that a skeletal point created in this way will end up being syllabified into a V-position occupied by the default vowel schwa. (15) Wiese 's (1996: 243) schwa epenthesis rule a. 0 X/ Χ]ω b. X V I

[β] In (16) we see some of the stages of a derivation involving schwa epenthesis.

The syllable in German

179

(16) Partial derivation o/Filter ([filta] 'filter') (based on Wiese 1996: 244) a.

underlying

/filtr/

Syllabification

b. C I f c.

V I I

C I 1

C I t

X I Β Schwa epenthesis (15)

Resyllabification

4. Government Phonology: its view of the syllable, its primes and some principles of grammar

In this and the following sections of the chapter, I try to show that the syllable may not be needed in phonological theory, after all, and that the reasons for referring to it given in (1) can be dealt with in different, perhaps more appropriate, ways. My argumentation is based on the assumption that Occam's Razor (see e.g. Lass 1984: 38) is a valid scientific principle and that structural units should be posited only if they can be shown to be necessary. The null hypothesis with regard to the syllable would, then, be that the existence of a syllable node should be assumed only if other, independently motivated, units of structure are unsuitable for capturing the generalizations usually viewed as manifestations of the syllable. At present, it seems that no compelling evidence in favor of a syllable node has been put forward in the literature and that the null hypothesis should at least be explored further. This is essentially the stance

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Wiebke Brockhaus

adopted in Government Phonology (GP), to which I provide a brief introduction here.2' In the absence of a syllable (node), GP obviously needs to have alternative structures and mechanisms in place which perform the functions usually attributed to the syllable. Let me outline these very briefly. Firstly, GP recognizes so-called constituents, which bear the names Onset, Nucleus and Rhyme. All the forms these constituents may take are shown in (17), but it may be worth noting that the rhyme is the first projection of the nucleus. In other words, the two Ν nodes in (17b) could be thought of as being immediately dominated by an R node, which, however, is often omitted in the literature, for simplicity's sake. The arrows in (17) indicate intra-constituent licensing relations (see below), and heads are emboldened. (17) The three GP

constituents

a. onset

b. nucleus

c. rhyme R

O

O

O A

Ν

Ν A

Ν

What may seem surprising is that the constituents are called onset, nucleus and rhyme - in the absence of a syllable node. As Rennison (1992) observes, these constituents are primitives of the theory, and the terms used are suggestive only of the historical derivation of these primitives from earlier work on the syllable. Another question arising from (17) is why the constituents should be maximally binary. The reason for this is the following. 'Government' Phonology, which could just as well be referred to as 'Licensing' Phonology, takes the view that licensing relations drive all phonological processing. (Licensing relations are asymmetric binary relations,22 and governing relations,23 which give the theory its name, are particularly restrictive licensing relations.) This fundamental idea is captured in the Licensing Principle in (18), stating that all skeletal positions must be licensed in each domain, except for the head of that domain.24 Wherever licensing relations are established, they define a phonological domain. (18) Licensing Principle (Kaye 1990: 306)

All phonological positions save one must be licensed within a domain. The unlicensed position is the head of this domain.

The syllable in German

181

Licensing relations can be set up at the skeletal level, where they are universally left-headed within constituents. This is known as strict directionality. Licensing relations are also strictly local, that is, the positions entering into such a relation must be adjacent. The binarity of constituents is a direct consequence of the requirement for licensing relations to be strictly directional and strictly local. But it is not only within constituents that licensing relations are established. There is a network of licensing relations running through each morphological domain, so that even between adjacent positions within separate constituents licensing relations are contracted, with each head and complement forming a phonological domain. These so-called inter-constituent licensing relations are universally right-headed, as illustrated in (19). (19)

Some inter-constituent

a. R

X

licensing relations in GΡ

b.

X gdz] •[Act] *[Ikt] *[lkc]

f. *C20C, 0C: *[ktn] *[kcn] *[xtn] *[gdzn] *[ktf] *[ktl] *[kcl]

The fact that the sequences in (19b-f), with the order of onsets changed (onset flip-flops), are ungrammatical, suggests that the types of sequences in (19a) are not arbitrary. This view is particularly strengthened by the distinct pattern displayed by the types of segments in particular positions, a point to which we return later. Gussmann and Kaye (1993) claim that the ungrammaticality of (19b) can be directly derived from the ranking of principles proposed to deal with the forms in (19a). Note that in (19b) the second and the third onset are swapped. These are the two onsets which contract a governing relation in the analysis of forms with two empty nuclei (17). Given the ranking strategy that 10 takes priority over PG and assuming that 10 applies only from left to right, the impossibility of the reshuffled forms in (19b) becomes obvious. This is illustrated below in (20a) and (20b). (20)

-P6-

-ff~

-*I0 Ο, N, 0 2 N2 0 3 Ν, 0 4 N4 I I I X X I U ι ι I

*b.

-P6 1 Ο, N, 0 2 N2 0 3 N3 0 4 I I I ! I I I X X X X X X X I u I I I I c e η k i c

N4

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Eugeniusz Cyran & Edmund Gussmann

Because of the governing properties of Ini, which is a typical governee, and /k/, which is a typical governor, an interonset relation cannot be contracted between /n/ and ñd in either case in (20); for this reason, one of the two empty nuclei must remain unlicensed regardless of whether proper government licenses Ni (20a) or N2 (20b). The other permutations responsible for the ungrammatical sequences (19b-e) can be handled in the same fashion.8 From the above discussion it may be concluded that whenever we are dealing with two onsets separated by an empty nucleus, the preferred sequence type will be one which can be sanctioned by the rightward interonset relation.9 In the case of sequences of two obstruents, i.e. two typical governors, the interonset relation cannot be invoked and hence the intervening empty nucleus in, for example, kto 'who' and tka 'she weaves' may be licensed by proper government only. We shall continue to hold that PG applies whenever it can, except where 10 is involved. This leaves us with the problem of sequences of two sonorants, e.g. [m\\eko 'milk'. As in the case of two obstruents just discussed, such forms could be derived by PG alone because both sonorants are typical governees which cannot invoke 10. This would predict the existence of the reverse order of onsets, something which we have seen is not the case; hence, this path has to be abandoned. We will consider the sequences of two sonorants in more detail in section 5.4. To summarize, the operation of 10 combined with PG seems to provide a useful tool not only for licensing forms containing two empty nuclei, e.g. tknqc 'touch' (17), but it also allows us to explain the prevailing patterns of segment distribution in Polish. 10, which is necessary to sanction sequences involving a governor and a governee, is responsible for the fact that such strings must exhibit rising sonority. To illustrate this we repeat the data from (12). (21) a. [kr]a / [k'er] [pr]ac / [p'ez]e [gn]ç / wy[g'in]ac [tnjie / wy[cin]ac

'ice float' 'wash' 'bend' 'cut'

b. *rka/rek *rpa / rep *nga / neg *nta / net

Recall that, as we demonstrated in section 3, these tendencies would remain inexplicable if the forms in (21) were to be derived by PG.10 Our account also provides an answer to the question of why vowel-zero alternations are typically found in sequences with rising sonority, regardless of the position within the word, e.g. kra/kier 'ice float, nom./gen.pl.'. Thus, given that any morphemeinternal sequence of the onsets: /r-k/, /r-p/ or /n-t/ will be excluded by 10, the only configuration in which such strings can be found in Polish is either a rhyme-onset sequence, e.g. park 'park' (22a), or a sequence where the two onsets belong to two different phonological domains as in parek 'pair, dim. gen. pi.' (22b).

Polish initial consonant sequences

(22) a.

b.

R Ο

Ν

Ο

Ν

Ο

Ν

i—Λ—ι N O N

χ-*-χ

χ

χ

χ

χ

χ

χ

O 1> [ χ

χ

χ

JJ I p

a

233

r

k

p a r

e

Χ

]

k

In (22a) there is no empty nucleus between Irl and ñd, hence no vowel-zero alternation is found. On the other hand, in the existing alternation parka/parek 'pair, dim.sg./dim.gen.pl.', the two onsets belong to two different phonological domains and the alternation results from the application of PG. Finally, we may also offer a rationale for the total absence of three- or fourmember sequences consisting solely of obstruents or solely of sonorants, e.g. */ptk/, */kpk/, */bdgb/, */rnl/, */lrnm/ (see section 3). Such sequences require that an interonset relation be contracted between onsets with identical governing properties, which is an unlikely situation.11 The main point of this section was to demonstrate the potential of the proposed ranking of 10 and PG in accounting for certain tendencies concerning the order and the type of segments found in Polish initial sequences. The results of our investigation suggest that the ranking of 10 and PG is able to define the effects (word-initially) of what we prefer to call the 'rising sonority slope'. 12 At this point, one should ask a question concerning the role of proper government in the Polish system. The introduction of the interonset relation seems to have reduced PG to a position of a fairly general licensing mechanism which 'patches up' the gaps in the analysis of the Polish data. This is not necessarily true. As we have demonstrated, proper government is responsible for licensing empty nuclei not only in combination with 10 (17), but also in other crucial contexts, namely, when two onsets are of equal status as far as their governing properties are concerned, e.g. kto 'who', tka 'she weaves'. In the following sections, PG will be shown to play a crucial role in other sets of data, for example, [krt]aw 'larynx' which contains a branching onset followed by another onset.13 Below, we return to the problem of distribution in the initial triconsonantal sequences, e.g. tknqc 'touch', presented in (19a).

5.2. Constraints on adjacent melodies Although the ranking of principles accounts for the lion's share of the problems encountered in Polish triconsonantal sequences, it is not able to explain the

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Eugeniusz Cyran & Edmund Gussmann

somewhat restricted nature of the positions Ci and C2. Let us first repeat (19a) below for convenience. (23)

C,0C20C3... [tkn]^c [ckn]ic [txn]^c [dzgnj^c [tkf]ic [tkl]iwy [ckl]iwy

'touch' 'long' 'breathe' 'stab' 'stick, vb. 'tender' 'maudlin'

The data in (23) show a clear pattern as to what type of consonant is found in the respective positions, i.e. Ci and C2. The first onset is filled by a coronal obstruent and the second by a velar. The reversal of the order of the two segments produces forms which are unattested, e.g. */ktl/iwy, a point we discussed in connection with the data in (19) above. For the moment, we will concentrate on the Ci position. What is disturbing about Q is that it could be expected to enjoy relative melodic freedom because it does not contract any relation with other consonants. Thus, we should expect to find all kinds of consonants there yielding sequences like */pkn/, */kkn/, */wkn/, */rkl/, */nkl/, */jkn/. The question immediately arises why it is a coronal stop or affricate that tends to appear in that position, while C 2 is occupied by a velar obstruent. Furthermore, we need to recognize the departures from this pattern given below and consider their significance. (24)

C!0C20C3... [pxw]a [pxnfcc [mgw]a [mkn]^c [mgñjienie [mdw]y [Ignkc

'flea' 'push' 'mist' 'speed' 'wink' 'bland' 'cling'

The data in (24) belong to the same set of forms as (23) in terms of structure. They both contain two empty nuclei which are licensed through 10 and PG. The exceptionality of (24) lies in the fact that the positions Ci and C2 do not conform to the pattern of (23) in that either Q is not a coronal obstruent, or C2 is not a velar or both. Q can be a labial plosive (pchia) or one of the sonorants /l, m/ (Ignqc, mknqc), while C2 can be occupied by a velar fricative (pchia) or,

Polish initial consonant sequences

235

in one case, a dental plosive (mdly). The significance of these observations will be discussed shortly. Recall, however, that /l/ and Imi are the only sonorants which can precede a 'magic' context word-initially, e.g. mscic 'avenge' and Isnic 'glitter', as this position is normally reserved for labial obstruents (see (10c)). One could also add here that only Ν and Irai can occupy the initial position in sequences of two sonorants, e.g. mnogi 'numerous', Inu 'flax, gen. sg.'. Bearing in mind the exceptions in (24), let us try to account for the distribution of the obstruents in (23). We begin by looking at some facts concerning the Polish obstruents in order to show why coronal stops or affricates are the best candidates for the Ci position of forms like tknqc 'touch' (23). There are two reasons for this. One is connected with certain constraints on the consonantal melodies of adjacent onsets when separated by an empty nucleus. The other is connected with the prosodie system of licensing and refers directly to the admissible phonological strength of segments in prosodically weak positions. Let us concentrate on the former point first. Polish seems to have constraints on adjacent melodies which do not follow from governing relations, as it is only consonantal melodies attached to adjacent positions that must contract governing relations. One such constraint disallows adjacent homorganic stops word-initially. Thus, initial */tt/, */kk/, */pp/ or their voiced counterparts are illicit, and the stop sequences we do find are invariably heterogenic: (25)

C,0C 2 [kt]o [tk]ac [kp]ic [gd]y [gb]ur [db]ac [pt]ak

'who' 'weave' 'mock' 'when' 'boor' 'care' 'bird'

*tt... *dd. *kk... *gg· *PP- *bb.

As mentioned earlier, 10 cannot be invoked in (25) due to the fact that both onsets are typical governors. Therefore, the intervening empty nucleus is licensed by proper government. Given the nature of proper government, it follows that the restriction on the homorganicity of plosives in Polish has nothing to do with government but requires a special constraint characterizing wellformed representations. Additional support for this analysis is provided by the data in (26) below which illustrate the same point, namely, that two plosive consonants in a single sequence must not agree in place of articulation even if they are not in a governing relation. The forms contain an intervening [r] segment which is not to be found in triconsonantal forms such as tknqc (23).

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Eugeniusz Cyran & Edmund Gussmann

Cir0C2 [brdjysac [drgjac [krt]añ [grd]yka [brd]a [brdzjianski

'frolic' 'vibrate' 'larynx' 'Adam's apple' 'name of a river' 'of the Brda river'

*[brb] *[drb] *[krp] *[grb]

It seems natural to propose that the first two consonants form a branching onset which is followed by an empty nucleus and another onset. The head of the branching onset is not homorganic with the second onset and the intervening nucleus is licensed by proper government exactly as in the case of kto 'who' (25). Both data sets, (25) and (26), show that the plosives reveal more freedom than the triconsonantal sequences in (23), yet the constraint disallowing homorganicity is still active. This fact provides us with an explanation for the distribution of segments in (23), for example, cknic 'long'. Given that the second onset is typically occupied by a velar plosive, the Ci position can either be coronal or labial, but not velar. The question now is why labial plosives are not easily allowed in Q of such forms as tknqc 'touch'. A possible way of approaching this problem is discussed in the following section.

5.3. Prosodically determined distribution? In the preceding section, we have provided a partial account of the existing triconsonantal sequences as well as reasons for the non-existence of others. There still is a major lacuna in our description since nothing in it bars the emergence of sequences such as /pkn/, /bgl/ etc. If such sequences are impossible, as seems to be the case, we need to determine the mechanism disallowing the combinations. The proposal to be made below draws on the notion of Licensing Inheritance (Harris 1992, 1997, Brockhaus 1995) which, generally speaking, assumes that a slot's ability to license a given amount of phonological material is determined by its position in the prosodie structure. These licensing possibilities refer not only to the position within a syllable, but also to the position within a foot or even within the phonological word. The 'amount' of phonological material is identified with segmental complexity, i.e. the number of elements in a given compound. The general assumption is that a prosodically weak position may not be able to license excessively complex segments. Polish plosives can be chartered along the following complexity hierarchy.

Polish initial consonant sequences

(27)

strong « « « b/p g/k

237

weak d/t

The hierarchy does not seem to require much justification. Given the recurrent special behavior of coronal consonants in languages which has led other models to recognize that they are underspecified, we are not surprised to find the coronal stops at the bottom of the hierarchy. As for the distinction between labials and velars, government phonology provides an explanation for this difference too. Velar consonants are typically represented as headless or headed by the neutral element, which makes them weaker than the labials. Let us now demonstrate why labial plosives are not tolerated in the C, position of the triconsonantal clusters. The explanation illustrated below is based on the exposition of the licensing inheritance theory in Harris (1992, 1997). Consider the sequence [dzgnj^c 'stab' from the point of view of governing and licensing relations. (28)

PG "

government licensing

γ - » ® — *

Οι Ν, 0 2 N 2 0 3 WS 0 4 N 4 I I I I I I I I x - « x x x x x x x I dz

I g

η

I I I ^ c

The structure in (28) presents the now familiar interpretation of triconsonantal forms. We include the licensing path which proceeds from N 3 (head of domain) to the head of the interonset relation O 2 - O 3 . It appears that the position Oi is prosodically speaking the weakest as it is only licensed indirectly by the head of domain (N 3 ) via Ni. Given that labial plosives are at the top of the segmental strength hierarchy, they will be the least likely candidates to occur in a weak position. N 3 has to license the preceding interonset relation as well as properly govern the first empty nucleus. Thus, the licensing charge that can be offered to Oi is highly depleted. Having excluded velar plosives from the initial position in such forms as (28) on the basis of the constraint on homorganicity, we can now also exclude the labial plosives from this position, although on quite different grounds. We admit that at this stage we cannot offer a viable explanation for the fact that the second onset in forms like tknqc must be a velar which thus excludes /ktn/ or /ktl/ (cf. (19f)). It appears, however, that a velar consonant is not favored in Polish in the context preceding a governing relation. For example, it is not

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Eugeniusz Cyrart & Edmund Gussmann

found in the forms involving a single onset preceding a 'magic' context (*/kstr/), where only labial obstruents are found, e.g. pstry 'gaudy' (10c). Note that a potential interpretation of */ktn/ would involve an 10 relation between /t/ and /ηλ In this respect, one might simply assume that the sequence /tkn/ as in tknqc is an optimal arrangement for triconsonantal sequences. We mentioned above that the sequence */pk/ or */bg/ is also unattested in the data involving just two plosives (25). We may account for this fact by applying a parallel analysis. In kto, tkac, kpic, gbur, gdy and dbac, the first onset is also prosodically weak. Note that the nucleus which licenses the first onset is itself properly governed by the head of the domain. The only exception in this set of data is the word ptak 'bird' which has a labial plosive in the initial position. This case may be explained by the fact that, first of all, the second onset is occupied by the weakest of plosives, that is, N. And secondly, both onsets are voiceless, that is, they lack a laryngeal element, which makes the whole sequence relatively uncomplex and hence possible to license. The nature of the following consonant seems to be of some importance. Recall the two cases of triconsonantal sequences, e.g. pchla 'flea' (cf. (24)), where /p/ was allowed initially and the second onset was occupied by a velar fricative rather than a plosive. A labial plosive may be licensed in Oi only if the following onset is weakened and thus 'consumes' less of the licensing charge from the head of the domain. The concept of licensing inheritance in Polish is additionally appealing because it gets us closer to providing a non-arbitrary justification for ranking the interonset relation higher than proper government. Consider again the ' 0 i r 0 2 ' sequence in forms such as brdysac 'frolic' (26). What is striking about these forms is that here, unlike in tknqc (23) and kto (25), a labial plosive is found in the initial position, but not in the O2 position. This suggests that in brdysac it is 0 2 which is weak and, consequently, we would like to claim that the licensing path is reversed here as compared with both kto and tknqc. For clarity of presentation, we encircle the weakest position in each of the forms below.

Polish initial consonant sequences

(29) a.

239

b. i

f Ni I Χ

Ν XX

P€ 02 I ®
Vulg. Lat. ratjonem > It. ragione, Fr. raison, Lat. fació > Vulg. Lat. facjo > It. faccio, Fr. {je) fais (cf. Lausberg 1969: sec. 453 ff.). The rounded semi-vowel exhibits a less constrained distribution in comparison with that of the corresponding anterior one. Indeed, within the word, [w] occurs in the following contexts: (3)

a. in initial position; e.g. via 'street'; volo '(I) wish'; vulpis 'fox' b. between vowels; e.g. lavo '(I) wash'; aves 'birds' c. after a consonant and before a vowel; e.g. arva 'arable field', nom. and acc. plur.; silva 'wood'

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Giovanna Marotta

A real complementary distribution between [w] and [u] is prohibited by the occurrence of both segments in the same context (3c). Consider, for instance, the following minimal pairs: (4)

salwi serwi alwi

'safe', adj., gen. sing. 'slave', gen. sing. 'belly', gen. sing.

/ salui_ / serui_ / alui

'(I) jump', perf. of salio '(I) rope', perf. of sero '(I) feed', perf. of alo

But if we consider the morphology of these word pairs, we see that the morphological boundary does not occupy the same position. Therefore, we can easily assume that even in the context between a sonorant and a vowel there was complementary distribution between [w] and [u], since we find the former only when there is no preceding morpheme boundary (#). The underlying representation of the minimal pairs cited in (4) will therefore be the following: /salw#[/ vs. /sal#ui7, /serw#ij vs. /ser#uij, /alw#i/ vs. /al#ui7. The major constraint on [w] seems to be the occurrence of a vocalic segment at its right; the same holds for [j], which is, however, constrained in the same sense at its left as well. Despite the occurrence of [j] and [w], there were no rising diphthongs in Latin which could be associated with a complex nucleus, since the semi-vowels were undoubtedly attached to the onset position. Their adjacency to all the vowels indicates that their nature was more that of a consonant than that of a vowel. In fact, true rising diphthongs, as in the case of the Romance languages, arise from the fusion of a semi-vowel with a specific vowel; cf. It. uovo 'egg', piede 'foot'; French oiseau 'bird', pied 'foot', etc. From a phonetic point of view, there is no problem in considering both [j] and [w] as segments associated with an onset position, and specifically with the position closest to the nucleus: on the one hand, they have the highest value of strength among the vocalic elements; on the other, semi-vowels occupy the highest position before vowels in the sonority scale, and therefore they cannot be followed by any stronger consonant. Even the Romance evolution indicates that both [j] and [w] have consonantal more than vocalic value, at least in Vulgar and Late Latin. In fact, [j] behaves like clusters, changing into affricates or fricatives; e.g. ianuarius 'January' > Vulgar Latin jenuarius > It. gennaio, Fr. janvier, Cat. gener, Port. janeiro; [w] becomes a fricative; e.g. Vulgar Latin velum 'veil', with [w] > It. velo, Fr. voile (see Lausberg 1969: sec. 329-330). The strengthening process involving both Latin semi-vowels was possible only if they were produced and perceived more as consonants than as vowels. Probably, as Lausberg (1969: sec. 329) suggests, the process took place initially in strong positions, i.e. in utterance-initial position or after a consonant, even in a phrase; e.g. Lat. iam 'already' > It. già; Lat. belua 'beast'> It. belva.

The Latin syllable

293

3.5. Consonants The class of stops is rather unmarked: p, b, I, d, k g, kw, gw. The only critical point is indeed the interpretation of the graphic sequences , probably labiovelare, i.e. velar segments with a labial secondary articulation. As such, kw and gw would be represented as complex segments with a single skeletal slot in onset position. 7 For instance: (5)

a.

a kw I V X

X

a I X

I I I N O N

'water'

b.

1 I

i I x

η gw a I V I x

x

I I I O N Cd

x

'tongue'

x

I I O N

The evidence in favor of an interpretation of labiovelare as complex segments is based on the light prosodie weight of the syllable preceding in metrics. If this spelling were to indicate a sequence of true consonants, the velar stop could stay in the coda and the semi-vowel in the onset of the next syllable. Moreover, [kw] and [gw] would be the only tautosyllabic clusters different from the muta cum liquida format (see sec. 6.2). The feature of rounding linked to the Root node allows the contrast between velars and labiovelare; e.g. sequor '(I) follow' / secor '(I) am cut'; pinguis 'fat', adj. / pingis '(you) paint'. However, the voiced labiovelar appears to be strongly constrained, because it occurs only when it is preceded by a nasal; e.g. lingua 'tongue', pinguis 'fat'. An interesting alternation of gu with the rounded semivowel is attested too; for instance, nivis, 'snow', gen.sing. versus ningit or ninguit 'it is snowing' (but perf. ninxil, cf. sec. 8.1).9 The fricatives of Latin were f , s and h. The last one, probably produced as a glottal fricative, was present only in the educated register of the language. The articulation of Dal was so weak that it did not block phonological processes such as rhotacism (e.g. diribeo '(I) divide' < *dis-habeo) or vowel contraction (e.g. nemo 'no one' < *ne-hemo < *ne-homo). 10 It must be remembered that, in the word's internal position, the aspirate also has the function of signalling the hiatus; e.g. ahenus < *aes-nos 'bronze', cohors 'cohort', etc. The Iii was produced more as a labial fricative than as a labiodental one, as the late grammarians noted. As far as the sibilant is concerned, in Latin only the voiceless [s] occurred, since the voiced sibilant either was deleted or became [r] (see sec. 7). The last class to be considered is that of sonorants: two nasals and two liquids are the last segments to be included in the phonological inventory of Classical Latin: m, n, r, I. The lateral could be pronounced in two ways: a pinguis I and an ex His /, i.e. [t] and [1]. Context determined the alternation between the two sounds, since the former occurred only before a rounded vowel; hence,

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Sicilia 'Sicily', with [1], but Siculus 'Sicilian', with [1]; velie 'to wish', velim '(I) would wish', both with [1], but volo '(I) wish', volumus '(we) wish', with [i], As the instances show, this alternation also has an interesting harmony effect on the vowel preceding -/-. As for nasals, a critical point concerns the interpretation of : does it stand for a phonetic sequence of a velar stop followed by a coronal nasal, as the spelling shows, or did the Latins write a special sound in this way, where the features [back] and [nasal] were simultaneously present? In poetry, although gn cannot be preceded by any consonant, the syllable which is followed by it counts as heavy, thus suggesting that we are in front of two heterosyllabic consonants. In spelling, the interpretation of g as a nasal is suggested by word games occurring in the texts; e.g. ignem magnum / inhumanus (PI. Rud. 767); ignominia / in nomine (Cie. Rep. IV, 6). Even the spelling ngn that we find at times in the epigraphs seems to confirm such an interpretation. Moreover, etymological relations like decet 'it is proper' / dignus 'proper, suitable', lego '(I) pick' / lignum 'wood' indicate that gn stands for a phonetic sequence, probably [qn]. However, the velar nasal cannot be included in the phonological inventory of the language, since it occurred only when licensed by a following nasal in onset.

4. The syllable

Doubts as to the relevance of the syllable in phonological theory have been recently expressed, especially within Natural Phonology. The hypothesis is that all the relevant information can be taken from the segmental tier; therefore, the prosodie tier relative to the syllable no longer becomes necessary. However, we would like to affirm once again the centrality of the syllable in phonological analysis, since syllable structure allows one to give a simpler yet exhaustive picture of the phonological structures as well as of the processes occurring in a language. Taking into account only the constraints at work on the adjacency of segments without considering the hierarchical relations between the syllable constituents is not sufficient for explaining the phenomena observed in natural languages. Moreover, a multilinear representation cannot do without the syllable tier. The representation of the syllable that has already become traditional in nonlinear phonology is the following (see, among others, Goldsmith 1990: 109 ff.; Kenstowicz 1994: 253 ff.):

The Latin syllable

(6)

(Onset)

Nucleus

295

(Coda)

Syllable With such a picture, we are able to represent the internal structure of the syllable, accounting for the optionality of the onset as well as for that of the coda. As we know, the nucleus is the only obligatory constituent and, at the same time, the optimal element for bearing stress and tone in natural languages. This special status of the nucleus is represented in an explicit way in the theory proposed by Levin (1985), where the nucleus becomes the essential core of the syllable through the application of the principles already proposed in X-bar syntax. The syllable is now viewed as a projection of the primitive category Nucleus; the onset is the specifier and the coda the complement; the rhyme is the first projection of the Ν category (i.e. N'). The representation would be the following: (7)

Spec

Ν

Compi

Ν' The tree in (7) is basically the same as in (6), but in (7) the relevance of the nucleus is more transparent. Especially in languages where vowel quantity is phonological, as in Latin, the nucleus appears to play a fundamental role in determining the prosodie structure. Moreover, the metrics of Latin is based on the contrast between light and heavy syllables, and the nucleus structure is the first element for the assignment of syllable weight. Finally, a hierarchical structure such as that in (7) also has the advantage of using the same representation for syntax and phonology: the positions associated with Spec and Compi can be empty in a syllable just as in a Noun Phrase. Despite these remarks on the isomorphism between syntax and phonology, we decided to maintain here the traditional terms (onset, nucleus and coda) for the sake of clarity. We shall now go on to consider the different constituents of the syllable, in order to show how they were filled in Latin. An important source for studying syllable structure in natural languages comes from poetry, especially from metric conventions, which normally reflect the prosodie principles of the language. In Latin metrics, the opposition between light and heavy syllables is fundamental, and prosodie weight is determined by rhyme structure. Therefore, a syllable representation cannot disregard the rhyme constituent; in other terms,

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we defend binary and hierarchical representations of the syllable such as that presented in (6).

5. The nucleus

In Latin, the nucleus can project one or two structural positions; one position in the case of a short vowel (e.g. malum 'bad accident'), two positions in the case of a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. malum 'apple', caelum 'sky'). The nucleus head is associated with the first position: (8)

a.

a: / \ χ χ

b.

a I

e I

χ

χ

Ν Ν From a general point of view, another representation is possible, i.e. we might associate the first slot with the nucleus and the second with the coda. At first glance this solution seems more plausible for diphthongs than for vowels, since quantity has distinctive status in Latin (see sec. 2). In the case of a long vowel, the association of both timing units to the nucleus is justified by the distinctive value of vowel quantity in the language. We know that diphthongs have the same prosodie weight as a long vowel in metrics as well as in the assignment of lexical stress. Therefore, there are good reasons for representing both structures with the same autosegmental notation, as we did in (8). In a sketch of the syllable in a language, it is important to present not only the size of the different syllable constituents, but also the specific segments which are licensed in different positions. We now briefly illustrate the relevant properties of the nucleus in relation to the segmental and prosodie content.

5.1. Light nucleus In the case of a light nucleus, all the short vowels belonging to the phonological inventory of the language were allowed. There are no constraints in relation to the syllable position in the word. When a short /i/ was followed by a labial consonant (e.g. optimus 'the best', maximus 'the greatest'), the so-called sonus medius occurred (cf. sec. 3.2). Since in this context a sound like [y] was probably produced, in its auto-

The Latin syllable

297

segmental representation the sonus medius will be associated to the same content of a short front vowel with the addition of the rounding feature. Thus, if we want to give an exhaustive picture of the phonology of the language, we have to assume that in Latin the features [+rounded] and [+front] could occur in the same segment, but only in the case of a high vowel. The phonological contrast between light and heavy nuclei was normally neutralized in case of a hiatus: in a sequence of two vowels, the first one was normally short, as the metrics undoubtedly suggests; e.g. pendeo '(I) hang' vs. pendere 'to hang', deamo '(I) love' < de-amo^ This shortening process is traditionally summarized with the rule vocalis ante vocalem corripitur, i.e. 'a vowel before another vowel becomes short'. Actually, there are exceptions, concerning a few borrowings from Greek (such as a.er 'air', Lo (name)), as well as pronominal forms like illius, istius (but in poetry the shortening is also attested) and forms of the verb fio '(I) become', maintaining the long root vowel in hiatus (e.g.ßo, fluni, but flerem,fieri).u Another case of neutralization of vowel quantity is represented by the socalled correptio iambica: in disyllabic words composed of an iambic sequence (light + heavy), the final heavy syllable becomes light; e.g. ego > ego T , mihi > mihi 'me', dat., modo > modo 'now', ubi > ubi 'where', etc. 12 The brevis brevians phenomenon was a typical feature of colloquial speech, taking place especially when the disyllabic word was syntactically bound with the following word. In the classical age, iambic shortening had the status of an optional rule. In the educated register of the language, the shortened forms could coexist with the unshortened ones. The metrical evidence suggests that poets were allowed to make use of both forms, depending on the meter.

5.2. Heavy nucleus In the case of a heavy nucleus, in the sense of a long vowel, there are no constraints: all five segments are allowed, and in all the positions of a word; e.g. initial syllable: pijum 'pounder', populus 'poplar-tree', paret 'it is clear'; medial syllable: apparet 'it is evident', leporis 'charm', gen.sing.; final syllable: amo '(I) love', lupi ' w o l f , gen.sing., manus 'hand', gen.sing., facie 'figure', abl.sing. As far as the diphthongs are concerned, only [ae] is allowed in the final position of a word. In an inflected language like Latin, the final position is devoted to the expression of morphosyntactic marks. Therefore, the occurrence of a segment in this context is mostly dependent on the morphological structure. Now, if we consider the Latin diphthongs, only [-ae] has a morphological function, since it is the morpheme for genitive and dative singular as well as for

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nominative and vocative plural of the so-called first declension, that is, of the feminine nouns with -a stem. This is a point which has to be emphasized as a constant in the phonological analysis of Latin: a segment occurring in the rhyme of a word's final syllable is not only an element of the phonological level of the language, but also a unit of the morphological structure. Therefore, in this position the distribution of both vowels and consonants is heavily constrained by the morphological role played by the segment.

6. The onset 6.1. Empty and simple onsets In Latin, an onset can be empty in initial syllables (like in et 'and', am. nis 'torrent', o.cu.lus 'eye') as well as in internal or final syllables (like me.atus 'course', sci.o '(I) know'). 13 Given the shortening rule working in the context of hiatus (cf. sec. 5.1), in a sequence of two nuclei, the vowel associated with the first nucleus was normally short; e.g. habeo '(I) have' vs. habere 'to have', familia 'family', vmea 'vineyard'. When the onset is filled by a consonant, there are no segmental constraints: all the consonants which belong to the phonological inventory of Latin may be associated with the onset position closest to the following nucleus; for instance, pa. ter 'father', ter. ra 'earth', di. gì. tus 'finger', lingua 'tongue', fi. I i. us 'son', hos.tis 'enemy', vi.ta 'life', ma.ter 'mother', na.vis 'ship', lana 'wool', etc. However, the relative frequency of the segments is not always the same. It is sufficient to pick up a Latin lexicon and see how many pages are devoted to initial letters which stand for the different consonants: the voiceless stops are more frequent than the voiced ones; the sibilant is more frequent than the labial fricative. Even less frequent is the occurrence of [j], [w] and [h], which appear to be peripheral elements; as such, they were more prone to linguistic change. Liquids and nasals cannot precede any other consonant within the same onset. Notice also that the voiced labiovelar cannot occupy the initial position in a word, since it must always be preceded by a nasal (e.g. lingua).

6.2. Complex onsets The only segmental sequence allowed as a complex onset in Latin is the socalled muta cum liquida-, for instance, premo '(I) press', credo '(I) believe', frater 'brother', brevis 'short';pluit 'it rains',77umen 'river', gloria 'fame', etc.

The Latín syllable

299

Different remarks about the data are necessary. The first concerns the lack of *tl and *dl clusters, although they come under the typology of complex onsets as defined by the formula muta cum liquida. Taking the perspective adopted by Goldsmith (1990: 124ff.), we might say that in a syllable constituent an overlap of the same distinctive feature (here, [coronal]) is not allowed; hence, *tl, *dl. In that case, we would not have any motivation for the occurrence of tr and dr, where, again, both segments have in common the same point of articulation. Alternatively, the strength hierarchy, as well as the related notion of minimal sonority distance, could be invoked, as indeed Steriade (1982) has already proposed for Latin. However, this solution seems to be an ad hoc proposal more than a real explanation. The lack of *tl and *dl clusters is related to the coronal syndrome, i.e. to the special status of the coronal segments. As is well-known, there is evidence from different areas (language acquisition, aphasia, speech errors, linguistic change, assimilation and harmony processes) suggesting that the coronal consonants are underspecified for point of articulation (see Paradis & Prunet 1991; Marotta 1993). The head of a complex onset is the segment associated with the first position. In a sequence like ll, if the stop is underspecified at the underlying level for Point of Articulation, it cannot govern the lateral, which would then be more complex than its head. A second caveat concerns the dr sequence, which is rather marked within the phonological system of Latin. In word-initial position, we find dr- in a few words, normally Greek loans (e.g. druppa 'ripe olive', draco 'snake', drachma 'drachma', a small Greek coin). In medial position, -dr- is present again in borrowings from Greek (e.g. Hadrianus, Adria, both names) or in the Latin word quadrus 'square' and its derivates (e.g. quadriga 'a set of four', quadraginta 'forty'). There are also alternations indicating the devoicing of the cluster, i.e. -dr- > -tr-, for instance, the adjective derived from the impersonal verb taedet 'it disgusts' is taeter, taetrum < *taed-rom 'horrid'. The comparison of inflected forms with the corresponding Greek also suggests devoicing; cf. uter, utris 'a skin (for oil, wine)' vs. Gr. hydría. The change dr > tr may be viewed as a strengthening process: in a complex onset where both segments share the feature [coronal], the devoicing allows the stop head to better govern the following rhotic (cf. Harris 1990). The last point to be taken into account concerns labiovelare: if they are considered to be sequences composed of a velar stop followed by a rounded semivowel, then a new format for complex onset has to be added. Otherwise, if we insert labiovelare in the phonological inventory of Latin - as actually we did - , /k w / and /g w / would be associated with only one skeletal slot, thereby projecting a simple onset (see 5a and b).

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Giovanna

Maretta

7. The s + C clusters

The consonantal sequences which have a sibilant in first position are rather problematic. On the one hand, in many languages and in Latin too, 5 normally enters into cluster formation; on the other hand, general phonological principles connected with the strength hierarchy force us to consider it as heterosyllabic with respect to the following consonant, at least in the case of s + stop sequences, which actually are the most frequent clusters involving the sibilant. As for the sonority scale, we would like to point out that so far no specific phonetic correlate has been found for sonority. At the same time, consonantal strength does not have a clear correspondence with any physically measurable property (cf. Ohala & Kawasaki 1984: 122; Dogil & Luschützky 1990: 14 ff.). However, assuming a phonological point of view, i.e. an abstract one, as Clements (1990) proposed, we think that the notions of sonority and segmental strength can continue to be used, at least as a tool for describing, more than for explaining, the distributional data. In other terms, sonority should be considered a phonological category, and not a phonetic property. In the case of Latin, the only clusters of the s + C type which are allowed are those where the C is a voiceless stop. As is well-known, Classical Latin had no voiced sibilant, since it was deleted before the voiced consonants (e.g. izdem > idem 'the same'), while in intervocalic context, it was rhotacized; e.g. arbozis > arboris 'tree', gen.sing.14 There is clear evidence in favor of the heterosyllabic status of the sibilant followed by a consonant. From a general point of view, the arguments may be the following: a) external evidence: in living languages, speech errors show that the degree of cohesion in s + C clusters is clearly lower than with other possible complex onsets, such as obstruent + liquid sequences; moreover, children normally do not syllabify the s and the following consonant in the same syllable; b) the strength hierarchy, interpreted as a universal principle: in the onset, the consonants follow an order going from stronger to weaker; thus, a fricative like 5 cannot precede any stop in the same onset; c) both on the articulatory and acoustic sides: the phonetic features of [s] assimilate it more with the class of sonorants than with that of obstruents, although the sibilant is traditionally classified with the latter. For Latin, in particular, we might add evidence coming from metrics, where in a sequence V + s + C + V the first syllable normally counts as heavy, suggesting that the sibilant has to be associated with the coda. Furthermore, if the final part of a word has the format s + C + V (+ C), the lexical stress invariably falls on the preceding vowel, even if it is short; e.g. desisto '(I) leave o f f , inféstus 'disturbed', incéstus 'impure'. The last two examples are particularly

The Latin syllable

301

interesting, because the short -a- of the basic form (fastus, castus) is raised to e-, and not to -/'-, as it normally happens when, in a derivate, this vowel is in an open syllable; compare facio '(I) make' -> affido '(I) affect', cado '(I) fall' —» cecidi (perfect form) with scando '(I) rise' ascendo '(I) rise', fallo '(I) mistake'—> fefelh (perfect form); cf. Niedermann (1931: secs. 15-18). Consider now word-initial clusters like those in slare 'to stand', spes 'hope', scribo '(I) write'; in the light of the arguments summarized so far, the sibilant would be a 'stray' or 'floating' segment, unassociated with the onset at the underlying level. However, if we take into account that, in Latin, word boundaries are very strong, we might consider the initial clusters of the format s + C as tautosyllabic, at least at some level of representation. The fusional type of the language, with relative freedom of word positioning in the sentence, gives an autonomous status to the word unit. Therefore, resyllabification rules not only have a reduced scope, but also a lower-ranking relevance. This is another important difference in relation to the Romance languages. For instance, in Italian, word boundaries are very weak, and syllabification rules normally by-pass them, especially within a single phrase; e.g. la scala = las.ca.la 'the stair', as vasto = vas.to 'wide'. In Latin, syllable boundaries tend to respect word boundaries, with the result that a heteromorphemic sequence is normally also heterosyllabic, without any adjunction of further rules. Within Government Phonology, the initial s- would stay in a separate syllable, whose rhyme would be filled by an empty nucleus plus the sibilant (cf. Kaye 1992). However, metrical evidence coming from literary texts goes against this hypothesis: the supposed rhyme with the empty nucleus plus Λ does not count as a real syllable. In the same way, in the context of a final superheavy rhyme (see sec. 10), no resyllabification rule can be applied, and a final 5 has to remain in the coda position, without association with a following empty nucleus; for instance, a word like arx will be dealt with as a monosyllable. Once again, the sibilant shows a special status in the phonological system. In particular, -s occurs in word-final position even in contexts where the prosodie structure would not allow it. This may happen by virtue of the great functional load carried by this segment in the Latin morphophonology. This is also the reason why vowel quantity is maintained in word-final syllables only before -s; e.g. manus / manus 'hand', respectively nom.sing. and gen.sing.; fastus 'pride', nom.sing. / fastus, gen.sing. The great number of contrasts pushed toward the preservation of both long and short vowels before final -s.

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Giovanna Maroita

8. The coda 8.1. Simple codas If the coda is associated with a consonant, many segments may be licensed in this constituent: obstruents (e.g. fac.tum 'done', sep.tem 'seven', scrip.si '(I) wrote', ves.pa 'wasp'), sonorants (dentis 'tooth', gen.sing.), vinco '(I) win', vulnus 'wound', her.ba 'grass', corpus 'body'), geminates (gut.ta 'drop', pas.ser 'sparrow', mel.lis 'honey', gen.sing.). Although the inventory is rather wide, a few gaps are found. With regard to obstruents, clusters like *t+c, *t+p, *t+s are ruled out because of the coronal syndrome (cf. sec. 6.2). Also, two voiced stops are not allowed in Latin, even with a morpheme boundary between them; e.g. ad + gero > aggero '(I) bear' (but ad-bibo '(I) drink'). At the same time, backward assimilation of voicing is frequent, with further gemination; e.g. ad + facio > affido '(I) affect', ad + fluo > affluo '(I) run'. The sequences of the kind *s + b, d, g; *s + C [+son] are prohibited by the feature [-voiced] always associated with the sibilant in Classical Latin. The closeness of sonority values is the reason for the absence of clusters made up by two sonorants where a nasal occupies the first position (i.e. *m+ r, I, *n + r, 1). However, the occurrence of -mn- and the lacking of *nm has to be underscored: once again a coronal segment, i.e. [n], is not licensed in the coda before another nasal. As far as geminates are concerned, their relative frequency in the Latin lexicon is variable (see Giannini & Marotta 1989: 245 ff.). Liquids are very frequent. Voiceless stops are more frequent than voiced ones; these latter actually occur only in a few words, i.e. gibbus 'hunched', agger 'earthwork'. The fricative / i s also rare as a geminate; the only clear instance is offa 'bite'. Not all the consonants belonging to the phonological inventory of Latin could be geminated: labiovelare, /w/ and /h/ cannot occupy the coda position in the syllable, neither as simple segments nor as geminates. There are specific reasons accounting for this distributional constraint. Labiovelare are complex segments which cannot govern a complement by virtue of their special nature. Glides normally occupy the position closest to the nucleus in a syllable. Finally, after a glottal fricative like the one corresponding to the graphic , it is not possible to produce any other articulatory gesture unless vowel or glide; consider for instance the similar situation in English and German. With regard to labiovelare, we have to observe an interesting reduction process that takes place in the context of a coda. Alternations like relictus 'left' vs. relinquo '(I) leave', coctus 'cooked' vs. coquo '(I) am cooking', ninxit < ningsit 'it was snowing' vs. ninguit 'it snows' show that, in coda position, [k w ] and [g w ] changed into the simpler corresponding velar stops by delinking the rounding feature.

The Latin syllable

303

8.2. Complex codas The coda can be filled with two consonants. The possible combinations have the following formats: a. stop + s; e.g. ecs.traho '(I) draw out', ees.tollo '(I) lift out'; b. C [+son] + C [-son]; e.g. sane.lus 'established', carp.si '(I) picked', sump.tus 'taken up', iunc.si '(I) joined'. Two general constraints apply to complex codas: first, the second consonant must be a voiceless obstruent; second, a morpheme boundary has to be present after a complex coda. As we noted earlier, in Latin the morphological structure is reflected in the prosodie structure. This agrees with the previous observation about the reduced power and scope of resyllabification rules. Therefore, in the clusters composed of three consonants, the morpheme boundary is a syllable boundary too. Only the sequence C [+son] + stop + liquid sets the syllable boundary after the first segment (e.g. per.plexus 'confused', per.traho '(I) draw'). In the other cases, the boundary is after two consonants. In this way, we maintain that morphology is able to constrain the prosodie structure of the language, inasmuch as syllable boundaries tend to agree with morphological boundaries. Even in the case of adverbs like iuxta 'nearby', extra 'outside', where the morpheme boundary seems to be more opaque,15 we are able to predict the occurrence of a complex coda (i.e. iucs.ta, ecs.tra). Such a syllabification not only agrees with the strength hierarchy, but is also the same one we proposed for the cases considered so far, where the syllable boundary coincides with a more evident morpheme boundary. The relevance of morpheme boundaries is the reason why we propose to syllabify words like sane, tus 'established', vine, tus 'bound', iunc.tus 'joined', with complex codas of the type C [+son] + C [-son], followed by a C [-son] in the onset. With the alternative syllabification, i.e. san.ctus, vin.ctus iun.ctus, there would be disagreement in the behavior shown elsewhere by clusters made of two stops. As a matter of fact, there is no doubt that in captus 'taken', faclus 'made', victus 'won', the two obstruents have to be considered as heterosyllabic. Another piece of evidence in the same direction comes from the absence of clusters like -ct- or -ps- in word-initial position, together with their reduction in borrowings from Greek containing them; e.g. Gr. πτισάνη > Lat. tisana 'infusion'; Gr. πτελέα > Lat. tilia 'linden' (cf. Leumann 1977: 186). If we accept the principle of agreement between morphological structure and syllabic representation, then setting the syllable boundary might be problematic in words like perspicio '(I) look through', persto '(I) continue standing', where syllable and morpheme do not coincide. The only way to save the principle of agreement we have recognized so far is to assume that in per. s to, per.spicio, the initial 5 is a sort of appendix, which may be associated with the coda or the onset of the following syllable in a low stage of the derivation.

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In the final position of a word, we observe more constraints than elsewhere. In fact, we find only C + s as nominal morphemes (e.g. ars 'skill', mens 'mind', inops 'helpless'), or C [+cont] + C [-cont] as verbal morphemes (e.g. amant '(they) love', dicunt '(they) say\fert '(he) brings', vult '(he) wishes', est '(he) is'). Since these consonantal sequences are consistent with the strength hierarchy, we assume that they have to be associated with the coda. This assumption is in line with the recognition of the Latin word as an autonomous unit not only at the morphological level, but also at the phonological one. We could say that Latin is a language where the prosody is marked by the 'staccato' feature, while Romance languages, and Italian in particular, present a 'legato' prosody. While some of the final nominal morphemes in -s show the same format as the internal complex coda, the verbal morphemes present new combinations of segments in the coda constituent. In any case, both -s and -t, as word-final segments, are morpho-phonemes here, and have a very high frequency of use in the language. We might also observe that these segments are both marked as [+coronal].

9. Syllable template

On the basis of the data presented, the syllable template which can be assumed for Classical Latin has therefore the following format:

As we have seen so far, the complex coda in Latin is associated with two segments. However, in word-final position, codas made up by three consonants are possible too. In a language with morphological marks at the end of lexical units, the final rhyme, and in particular the coda, is the typical constituent which may present deviations from the standard syllable template, deviations which consistently go toward an increase in the number of consonants allowed elsewhere. The onset is not affected by this widening of constraints that is morphologically motivated. As Benveniste (1939) already observed, Latin is a language where the phonological weight is charged on the right side of the prosodie units, both syllable and word, in agreement with the direction followed by the morphological marks. The super-heavy coda, specific of word-final position, has the following format: C [+son] + C [+stop, -voice] + s; e.g. arx 'castle', stirps 'stem', falx

The Latin syllable

305

'sickle'. It is important to observe that the only segment which can occupy the last position in a word in the case of a super-heavy coda is the sibilant. Once again, morphology appears to be able to constrain the prosodie structure. In order to explain this special behavior, we might assume that the -s is a prosodie element located on a different tier, autonomous with respect to the syllable, and licensed specifically by the final position of the word. As we have already seen, in Latin there are many endings in -s, both in nominal and verbal inflection; e.g. rosas 'roses', acc.plur.; lupus ' w o l f , lupos, acc.plur.; ci vis 'citizen', cives, nom. and acc.plur., civibus, dat. and abl.plur.; manus 'hand', manus, gen.sing.; ferox 'wild'; amas '(you) love', sing.; amatis '(you) love', plur.; amans 'loving'. The very high functional load played by this consonant can also explain why in a closed final syllable the contrast between short and long vowels is preserved only before a sibilant (cf. manus vs. manus, see Porzio Gernia 1977). There are then sufficient reasons for assigning this consonant a special status and for setting it on a tier of the representation different from that of the other segments and connected with specific morpho-phonological properties. From a theoretical point of view, this solution may have Goldsmith (1990, 1993) as a reference point: in his Harmonic Phonology two different levels of representation are assumed, syllable and word; the final inflected segments, and in particular -s, may be located at the word level, without any change to the syllable constraints. In such a way, it becomes possible to maintain a syllable template with the coda constituent filled with a maximum of two consonants.

10. The weight of rhymes

The syllable structure of Latin admits light, heavy and super-heavy rhymes. A light rhyme is a rhyme associated with a light nucleus (= a short vowel) and no coda; e.g. ro.ta 'wheel\pi.lum 'hair', ma.lus 'bad'. A heavy rhyme may be composed of a complex nucleus (corresponding to a long vowel or a diphthong) and no coda (e.g. mu.rum ' w a \ Y , f i l u m 'thread', cae.lum 'sky', tau.rus 'bull'), or of a short vowel in the nucleus and a consonant in the coda (e.g.fac.tum 'made', mor.lis 'death', gen.sing., gut.ta 'drop'). A super-heavy rhyme has one of the following formats: (a) complex nucleus + simple coda; e. g. mij.le 'thousand', stella 'star', or.do 'order\ fes. ta 'holiday', and also scrip, tus 'written', ac.tus 'driven', by Lachmann's Law; 16 (b) simple nucleus + complex coda; e.g. sane, tus 'established', carp.si '(I) picked', vine.s[ '(I) bound'.

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Both heavy and super-heavy rhymes may be represented in an autosegmental structure where binarity and hierarchy will be preserved; for instance,

c.

f a c t u m 1 1 1 I 1 1 X X X X X X 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 Ν Cd 0 Ν Cd 1/ 1/ R R

b.

o: r d o: 1 Λ Λ 1 XX X X χ X 1 V ν ι Ν Cd 0 Ν I 1/ R R

mi: 1: e I Α Λ I X XXXX X I ν I I ι Ο Ν Cd O N

d.

c a I I χ χ I I I Ο Ν 1/ R

[/ R

I R

r I χ / C

ρ I χ

s i: I A χ χ χ I V O N I R

All the rhymes of the initial syllables are prosodically equivalent: in the metrics of Latin poetry, they count as longae. However, the overlong syllables appear to be marked structures, not only from a typological point of view, but even for their relatively low frequency with respect to the other rhymes. In the sermo cotidianus, especially in the low register, probably these structures were already simplified in the classical age. The reduction of the prosodie weight follows two complementary directions: on the one hand, the complex nucleus is reduced via shortening of long vowels and monophthongization; 7 on the other, the complex coda became simple through the deletion of a consonant (e.g. sanctus > French saint; It. santo). Both processes are confirmed by linguistic evolution: Romance languages no longer have vowel quantity and normally show only simple codas. We believe that the loss of vowel quantity as a phonological property of the language found its point of departure in the reduction of super-heavy rhymes. From this context, the process is spreading over other different and even less marked contexts.

11. Concluding remarks

The picture presented for the Latin syllable shows that the constraints bearing on the prosodie structure of the language are not too strict. Looking carefully at

The Latin syllable

3 07

the filling of the syllable constituents, we come to the conclusion that the Latin syllable is relatively unmarked. The onset can license zero, one or two segments; in case of a complex onset, the strength hierarchy is respected. The nucleus is associated with short or long vowels, as well as with falling diphthongs. The coda appears to be the richest constituent since it allows the possibility not only of zero, one or two segments, but even of three segments, at least in word-final position. The morpho-syntactic function carried out by the endings in Latin explains this enlargement of the coda constituent in the final position of inflected words. The loss of many endings in the linguistic evolution is reflected in the coda weakening observed in Romance languages, both in qualitative and quantitative terms.18 The static picture we depicted here might be integrated with a dynamic analysis where the description, constituent by constituent, should leave room for the study of interactions between the constituents. We would like to devote our attention to this specific topic in the near future; at the same time, we hope that the present analysis might be a synthetic illustration of Latin syllable structure in the framework of non-linear phonology.

Notes 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

9.

For problems connected with the phonological analysis of Latin, we refer the reader to the still relevant contribution by Leumann (1958). In the whole chapter, long vowels will be underlined; they will be indicated only when relevant to the point in discussion. As far as glosses are concerned, if no other specific indications are given, nominative sing, for nouns and adjectives, and present indicative for verbs are presented. The vowel quantity in Latin has been dealt with by many scholars; see, among others, Zirin (1970), Maratta (1981), Vineis (1993). For instance, in Italian the lengthening rule applies when a vowel is in an open nonfinal stressed syllable; e.g. /'kasa/ 'house' -> ['ka:sa], In the epigraphs, we find for instance as the usual abbreviation of consul·, sometimes, even an apex, a mark of the lengthening, occurs on the vowel preceding a nasal in coda. On the topic, cf. Sommer (1914: sec. 83), Safarewicz (1969), Leumann (1977: 125, 228), Vineis (1993). However, trisyllabic abjete is already attested in Classical Latin; for instance, Verg. Aen. II, 16; V, 663. On the definition of complex segments, see Kenstowicz (1994: 43, 499). However, we have to observe that in some of the poetic texts the syllable preceding qu counts as heavy in the meter. The possibility of counting qu as either tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic seems to indicate that - at least in some register of the language - the production of the labiovelar as a cluster made of a velar (probably lengthened) plus a rounded semi-vowel was possible; see Devine & Stephens (1977). Working within a structuralist framework, Touratier (1971) claimed that [gw] and [w] should be referred to by the same underlying phoneme, probably /w/.

308 10. 11.

12.

13. 14.

15.

16. 17.

18.

Giovanna

Maretta

As far as the diachronic aspects are concerned, we refer the reader to Safarewicz (1969) and Leumann (1977: 174, passim). In this last case, Safarewicz (1974: 231-239) draws attention to the rhythmic structure of the verbal form: if after the root vowel there is a heavy syllable, is long (e.g. fio); otherwise, it is short (e.g. fieri). The topic has been dealt with recently by Mester (1994: 19-20), who believes that the "distribution of long and short variants (...) is not synchronically arbitrary, but instead follows a clear rhythmic pattern striving towards optimal footing", i.e. the quantitative trochee. Cf. Safarewicz (1969: 85 ff.). The 'iambic shortening', together with the lexical stress rule of Latin, has become a popular topic of the literature on metrical phonology; see, for instance, Mester (1994: 11 ff.), Hayes (1995: 112 ff.). Here and henceforth, syllable boundaries are indicated by dots (.). The phonetic interpretation of forms like eiusdem, iisdem, or eisdem, respectively gen.sing. and dat./abl.plur. of idem 'same' remains an open question: was the sibilant still voiced or did the following morpheme boundary prevent backward assimilation? The first word is etymologically related to ¡ungo '(I) join', while in the second, the preposition (and prefix) ex is recognizable (extra < extera, scil. parte). Remember that the reduction of [ks] cluster is often observed within the word domain; e.g. *sekscenti > sescenti 'six hundred'; cf. Niedermann (1931: sec. 103). This reduction is perfectly compatible with the simplification of a complex coda. On the complex topic relative to Lachmann's Law, see Leumann (1977: 114). These processes were fed by the vowel shortening occurring in other contexts too; for instance, the correptio iambica and further general shortening of the final vowels; e.g. credo > credo '(I) believe'. On the other hand, the same history of the Latin language shows a clear trend toward the weakening of the coda, especially in the most marked structures, namely in the case of a super-heavy rhyme; for instance, Early Latin mijsi caussa > Class. Latin misi causa (cf. Maratta 1993: 74-76).

References Allen, W.S. 1965 Vox Latina: A guide to the pronunciation of Classical Latin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1973 Accent and rhythm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ben veniste, E. 1939 Repartition des consonnes et phonologie du mot. Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Prague 8, 27-35. Clements, G.N. 1990 The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In J. Kingston & M.E. Beckman (eds ), Papers in laboratory phonology, I, Between grammar and physics of speech. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 283-333. Devine, A.M. & L.D. Stephens 1977 Two studies in Latin phonology. Saratoga: Anma Libri. Dogil, G. & H.C. Luschiitzky 1990 Notes on sonority and segmental strength. Rivista di linguistica 2, 3-54.

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Giannini, S. & G. Maratta 1989 Fra grammatica e pragmatica: la geminazione consonantica in latino. Pisa: Giardini. Goldsmith, J. 1990 Autosegmental and metrical phonology. London: Blackwell. Goldsmith, J. (ed.) 1993 The last phonological rule. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. Harris, J. 1990 Segmental complexity and phonological government. Phonology 7, 255-300. Hayes, B P. 1995 Metrical stress theory. Principles and case studies. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. Kaye, J D. 1992 Do you believe in magic? The story of.? t C sequences. SOA S working papers in linguistics and phonetics 3, 293-313. Kenstowicz, M. 1994 Phonology in generative grammar. London: Blackwell. Lausberg, H. 1969 Romanische Sprachwissenschaft, I, Einleitung und Vokalismus, II, Konsonantismus. Berlin: de Gruyter. Levin, J. 1985 A metrical theory of syllabicity. PhD dissertation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT. Leumann, M. 1958 Phonologie der toten Sprachen. Acta Congressus Madvigiani I, 115-125; reprinted in Idem, Kleine Schriften, Zürich-Stuttgart: Artemis Verlag, 398-407. 1977 Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre. München: Beck. Marin, D. 1974 Latino arcaico e lingue neo-latine. Romanica 7, 183-200. Maretta, G. 1981 Contributi all'analisi del vocalismo latino classico. Studi e saggi linguistici 44, 85-131. 1993 Dental stops in Latin: A special class. Rivista di linguistica 5, 55-101. Mester, R.A. 1994 The quantitative trochee in Latin. Natural language and linguistic theory 12, 161. Niedermann, M. 1931 Précis de phonétique historique du latin. Paris: Klincksieck. Ohala, J. & H. Kawasaki 1984 Prosodie phonology and phonetics. Phonology yearbook 1, 113-127. Paradis, C. & J F. Prunet (eds.) 1991 The special status of coronals: Internal and external evidence. New York: Academic Press. Porzio Gemía, M L. 1977 Interferenze tra struttura morfologica e struttura fonologica nella sillaba finale latina. Studi Italiani di linguistica teorica e applicata 3, 113-140. Safàrewicz, I. 1969 Historische lateinische Grammatik. Halle: Niemeyer. 1974 Linguistic studies. The Hague: Mouton. Sommer, F. 1914 Handbuch der lateinischen Laut- und Formenlehr. Leipzig: Winter.

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Maretta

Steriade, D. 1982 Greek prosodies and the nature of syllabification. PhD dissertation. Cambridge, Mass.: ΜΓΓ. Tekavéic, P. 1982 Riflessioni su alcuni aspetti sociolinguistici nello studio del latino volgare. Incontri linguistici 7, 81-94. Touratier, C. 1971 Statut phonologique de qu et de gu en latin classique. Berkeley Linguistics Society 66, 229-266. Vineis, E. 1993 Latino. In A. Giacalone Ramat & P. Ramat (eds ), Le lingue indo-europee. Bologna: il Mulino, 289-348. Zamboni, A. 1986-87 Tra latino e neolatino: l'evoluzione delle medie aspirate indoeuropee e le successive ristrutturazioni del consonantismo. I & II, Indogermanische Forschungen 91, 205-235; 92, 112-134. Zirin, R.A. 1970 The phonological basis of Latin prosody. The Hague: Mouton.

11 Syllables in Western Koromfe John R.

Rennison

1. Introduction

This chapter investigates the syllable structure of the Western1 dialect of Koromfe (a Gur language spoken in northern Burkina Faso, West Africa) from a Government Phonology (GP) perspective and, where relevant, compares it to the related language Mòoré (the largest Gur language). Mòoré, though genetically related, has gone different ways with regard to a number of interesting aspects of phonological structure (in particular: Mòoré has tones, but Koromfe does not). The main focus here is on the status of (formerly) branching constituents (geminates, nasal + voiced stop sequences, long vowels and diphthongs) and the licensing vs. filling of empty constituents. The structure of this chapter is as follows. In section 2 I give some background information on segmental and phonotactic aspects of Koromfe, and in section 3 I outline the theoretical framework that I assume. The treatment of syllable structure begins in section 4 with the description of the simpler structures: single onsets (section 4.1), both filled and empty (and in initial and medial positions), then single nuclei (section 4.2). Special structural phenomena involving empty constituents are described in section 4.3, namely syllabic nasals (section 4.3.1), geminates (4.3.2.1) and homorganic nasal + voiced stop sequences (4.3.2.2), long vowels and diphthongs (4.3.3). The remainder (i.e. section 4.4) is devoted to floating melodies.

2. The segment inventory and 'phonotactics' 2.1. Koromfe vowels Koromfe has 40 phonetic 'monophthongs', given in (1), which can be analyzed as permutations of the basic 5-vowel system given in (2): each of the five full vowels has a nasal, tense (ATR) and long counterpart in each possible combination (except *ò:), giving 5> t ) and nasalization (including / - > « ) .

Syllables in Western Koromfe

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313

The inventory of word-initial/medial consonants of Koromfe without 'syllabic nasals ' (distributions, not alternations; 0 means 'does not occur in this position'; medial ρ is rare) labiolabial

voiceless stop (fortis) voiced stop (lenis) / fricative or tap

labiodental

p/(p) b/b

apicoalveolar

k/k

d/r

g/γ

f/f

s / s

voiced fricative

v/0

ζ/0

m / m

lateral approximant

dorsovelar

t/t

voiceless fricative nasal stop

dorsopalatal

0/q

η / η

1/1

glide

w/0

j/j

2.3. Koromfe 'phonotactics' The majority of words in Koromfe (a) begin with a consonant and (b) end with a vowel; the word-initial distributions are given in (4). The exceptions to generalization (a) are a few words beginning with a vowel, given in (5) and described in section 4.1.2.1 below, and the syllabic nasals, given in (6) and described in section 4.3.1, which can only occur phrase-initially. The exceptions to generalization (b) are nasal consonants and /, which can sometimes occur in phrase-final position, though with restrictions depending on their position in the word (cf. section 4.2.2.1 below). (4)

Word-initial onset-nucleus pairs (without schwa)

Onset p, t, k

Nucleus any

b, d, g

any

f, s ν

any a, ε, e, ι

ζ

any

Comments Medially the voiceless stops are often long and derivable from bb, dd, gg(\.t. an ΟΝΟ sequence - cf. sec. 4.3.2.1 below); Medially, except after a nasal consonant, d -> r and g —> y; other assimilations: nasalization of d-> η and g -> η, lateralization of d -> I after /, and place assimilations; Hardly ever long / geminated (ONO); ν occurs only in 9 lexical stems and only word-initially; ζ is rare medially;

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Nucleus Comments ε, ο, ε, 5, a, An expected following high vowel often lowers to i, 9 mid; η ε, ο, ε, ο, a, An expected following high vowel often lowers to mid; a, i any oral 1 / before nasal vowel probably became [n] historically; vowel any j and w assimilate to / and w before nasal vowels, [p] j, w, h is a very careful variant ofj\ Koromfe has no palatal series; 0 Only in a very restricted set of morphemes - see (5); ι, u, a Syllabic nasals occur only in phrase-initial position (see text) Φ η q and in few morphemes, though one (2nd sg. proclitic pronoun) is very frequent. Onset m

(5)

The word-initial vowels of Koromfe (native vocabulary) Vowel a

ι

υ

Morpheme(s) definite article (obligatory for otherwise undetermined nouns, but not proper names); subject and possessive proclitic pronoun 3rd. sg. non-human; also fossilized noun class prefix on cardinal numerals from 2 to 9; subject and possessive proclitic pronoun 1st. pi.

Examples a kèd 'woman'

/ w5fiu) 'they had' / sulΛ 'their foreheads' ihîï 'two', itää 'three', maa 'four' υ pa 'we give' u sa 'our father'

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315

Syllabic nasals (which only occur phrase-initially), exemplified with the 2nd singular proclitic personal pronoun N, which always assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant (Phonetically vowel-initial verbs do not exist) Pron. & Verb m pa m baki n) fan rq vaba m man w wary ι w wäg n ta n da η s am

'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you

give' do' go forward' hit' get used to' tire' break' shoot' win' wash'

Pron. & Verb n zaga η nasi n labu qkam qgjebu qgAbu J ja q han jjàq

'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you 'you

ask for' spread out' group' press' pound' bang' go' touch' resemble'

The vowels at the end of words (with the exception of some CV morphemes) frequently delete (or are reduced to schwa) phrase-internally; one class of such vowels can be considered to be lexically empty nuclei, since their quality is completely predictable from vowel harmony. Other vowels, with lexically distinctive qualities, can optionally be deleted, especially when unstressed and in faster or more casual speech, though this occurs less frequently than with empty nuclei. In both cases, there is no restriction whatsoever on the resulting sequence of phonetic consonants (cf. example (8) below) except for the accidental idiosyncrasies of the phonological shape of the morphemes involved. In Mòoré, all final nuclei (except in CV morphemes), whether lexically empty or filled, automatically delete (or are reduced to schwa) phrase-internally, though the processes of Α-umlaut and U-umlaut (which do not exist in Koromfe) often ensure that the quality of a lost vowel is recoverable (cf. Rennison 1988, 1990). In both Koromfe and Mòoré, stress is very weak and fully automatic, falling on the first nucleus of a word stem. Clitics are unstressed.

3. Theoretical prerequisites

This chapter is written in a version of Government Phonology (GP) in which branching constituents (onsets and nuclei) are to be abolished in favor of

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John R. Rennison

sequences of constituents (cf. Lowenstamm 1996). This is shown schematically in (7). As a consequence of this move, there is no longer a rhyme constituent in the theory (cf. van der Hulst & Ritter, this volume). The rhyme was formerly a projection of the nucleus; now that it can no longer branch, it is formally equivalent to (and therefore indistinguishable from) the nucleus that it contains. As a consequence, there is no longer any kind of coda constituent; all consonants are onsets (or ONO sandwiches - cf. sec. 4.3.2 below). It would go beyond the scope of this chapter to justify these revisions to the theory; I can do no more than refer to my work in preparation. (7)

O

Ο Ν O

Λ χ χ

χ

χ

χ

where Ν is empty

Ν Ο Ν

Ν Λ χ χ

χ

χ

χ

where O is empty

R Ν, Ο N2 χ

χ

χ

χ

χ

where either O or N2 is empty

4. Syllable structure

My treatment of Koromfe syllable structure is far removed from a superficial phonetic taxonomy of the traditional kind. In this chapter 'long' consonants or vowels involve empty constituents of the opposite type (i.e. an empty nucleus in a long consonant and an empty onset in a long vowel). It will be shown that such 'abstract' representations are necessary in order to understand the phonotactic structure of the language. One particular problem for superficial syllable structure dissolves into thin air in a GP analysis: the apparent asymmetry between the simple word-edge structures (both initial and final) and the quite complex word-internal consonant sequences (with up to four successive consonants). This discrepancy was analyzed within the GP framework in Rennison (1993) as being the result of (multiple occurrences of) morpheme-final empty nuclei, which are parametrically licensed in Koromfe. An example of this kind of structure is given in (8).

Syllables in Western Koromfe

317

(8) The partial GP representation of sigtrgu 'filter', from /sig0 +t0 +d0 +gu/3 (The relative ordering of the lines in diagrams throughout is irrelevant to the points at issue. Diagrams represent three-dimensional structures and lines are ordered for ease of graphic representation only.) O/N line

ONON

Skeleton

x x x x

I I I I

[[[[

S

I

g

ON + ] STEM

II

xx t

ON + ] c AUS./TRANS.

II

xx Γ

ON +

]DUR.

II

xx G

°

]cL.

The empty nuclei of words like sigtrgu, although licensed,4 can optionally be filled with schwas (especially in slower and/or more careful speech). Thus the pronunciations [siytrYu] (with no schwas) and [siyatarayu] (with the maximum number of schwas) are equally acceptable, although the first co-signals faster / more casual speech and the latter slower / more careful speech; moreover, any of the logically possible combinations of schwa vs. zero in each of these nuclei produces a good Koromfe word.5 Let us now consider the realizations of each type of syllabic constituent in turn and try to account for the constraints that can be observed.

4.1. Onsets There exist lexically filled6 onsets (the normal case) and two classes of empty onsets: (a) word-initial empty onsets, which are compositionally, positionally and lexically restricted (cf. (5) above for data and section 4.1.2.1 below for discussion), and (b) medial empty onsets (described in sections 4.1.2.2 and 4.3.2.2 below). A third type of phenomenon, a floating nuclear melody, is also relevant to empty onsets, precisely because it does not have one (cf. section 4.4 below); thus the lexical gu+ a which results in go (with a short monophthong) is structurally ON (i.e. (9a)), not ONON (with an empty onset, O2, as in (9b); here there is no reason for N2 to remain empty).

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John R. Rermison

The structure of short monophthongs resulting from a floating melody (There is no reason for N 2 of form (b) to be silent; a nucleus with a lexical melody is always licensed in Koromfe) a) correct O/N line

0,N,

skeleton

χ χ +

b) incorrect Ο, N, 02N2 χ χ + χ χ

A line

"A

I/U line phonetic

k

gloss

'kill'

U

U o

k ARTICLE

ο

'kill'

0 ARTICLE

4.1.1. Filled onsets Even before branching onsets were removed from GP theory, Koromfe (and Mòoré) had no candidates for such a structure. A Koromfe word normally begins with a single consonant (more precisely: a lexically filled onset), immediately followed by a vowel; no words begins with a consonant sequence. The exceptions to this generalization are the 'syllabic nasals' given in (6) and discussed in section 4.3.1, and the very few words which begin with vowels, given in (5). A few words such as those given in (10) might be considered to contain a 'branching onset' [kj] or [qj]. However, this would be a most peculiar single exception to the structure of onsets; all the more so because there exist no such 'onsets' at other places of articulation (e.g. *[pj]/*[bj] or *[tj]/*[dj]), nor any labiovelar equivalent (*[kw] etc.). (10) Words with the apparent 'branching onset ' [kj] Normal kjeku ragjo kjena gjeku kj5

Careful kjeku ragio kjena gjeku kje5

Lexical keb + gu ragio ke + na 8 geb + gu ke + ο

gpq

gpn

Φη

'field' 'radio (sg.)' 7 'woman + pi.' 'millet water' 'woman + sg. ' 'John'

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319

A closer look at the distribution of k and g in Koromfe reveals that [kj] or [gj] are in fact the normal realization of k and g before a non-low front vowel (/, i, e, ε and their long and nasal variants). Clearly, the palatal element9 I of the following nucleus is being realized in the k or g onset (though as velo-palatal rather than pure palatal stops),10 as shown in (11). (11) The partial GP representation of (a) the 'non-branching ' onset [k] in [ka] and (b) the 'branching ' onset [kj] in [kjc] (Dotted lines represent non-lexical associations) (a) (b) A/? line ? A ? A I

I/U line O/N line

Ο

phonetic

k a

Ν

Ο

Ν

kj

ε

Although the onset-nucleus sequences A/f and gjcshown in (lib), with all possible variations of non-low front vowel quality, is very frequent in Koromfe, only once in my corpus does this structure occur before an onset-nucleus sequence whose onset is empty and whose nucleus contains a back vowel, namely in the word kjö 'woman + sg.', whose structure is shown in (12). (12) The partial GΡ representation of [kjö] (=keö) 'woman-sg. ' (The vowel ε in parentheses is audible to a varying degree, depending on tempo and casualness) AT? line

?

I/U line

A

A

I

I

I

U

O/N line phonetic

Ο

Ν

kj

(ε)

Ο

Ν δ

Other types of word-initial consonant sequences which might be analyzed as branching onsets do not occur.

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4.1.2. Empty onsets Koromfe allows empty onsets in a variety of contexts, though with some interesting constraints, which are dealt with in detail in the following subsections.

4.1.2.1. Word-initial empty onsets In GP, a phonetically vowel-initial word must be analyzed as having an empty preceding onset. In native Koromfe vocabulary, such empty initial onsets cooccur exclusively with a following nucleus which is either a, / or υ (cf. the short, but nonetheless exhaustive, list of morphemes given in (5) above). No other variant of these vowels is permitted (e.g. tense (ATR), nasal, or long). Loanwords are even more restricted: there are a few loans from Arabic (e.g. ahbahola 'onion') and French (e.g. ahmetu 'match') which have an initial a, but no loans (from any language) with any other initial vowel (except, of course non-integrated borrowings, including some first names). This co-occurrence restriction between an empty word-initial onset and the quality of the following nucleus cannot be a consequence of any property of the onset: there is no way for an empty onset to directly determine the quality of the following nucleus. Rather, the restriction in vowel quality is determined by a more general constraint on the quality (better: melodic complexity) of pretonic syllables. The nuclei in question all immediately precede the stressed first syllable of a lexical stem, i.e. they stand in a prosodically very weak position. It seems that such nuclei, both in Koromfe and in Mòoré, cannot have complex melodies: exactly one element is both permitted and required. And only the elements A, I, U can ever stand alone in a nucleus (giving the vowels a, /, υ of the morphemes in question - cf. table (5) above). This restriction also applies to pretonic nuclei which do have a filled onset (cf. the proclitic pronouns in (13) below). In turn, these weak nuclei seem to be able to license their onset to be empty. However, there is a general restriction which can be observed in pretonic ON sequences: the element H (high tone / voicelessness) is never present, and probably cannot be licensed in this position. Some relevant evidence can be accrued from the proclitic pronouns, given in (13), none of which has a voiceless first onset.

Syllables in Western Koromfe

321

(13) Proclitic (always pre Ionic) vs. postclitic variants ofpersonal pronouns (Vowels in parentheses occur only phrase-finally; phrase-internally they are schwa)

person 1

Singular proclitic postclitic

1st 2nd 3rd human 3rd non-human 3rd diminutive

ma Ν da gu ga

m(e) η(ε) d(l) go ga

Plural proclitic postclitic 0 na ba I -

h5 na ba he -

Singular free ^proclitic + Icd) moko qko dako guko gako

Plural

uko nako bako lk3 -

The particularly interesting cases are υ ~ ho and / ~ he, where the proclitic variant is an extremely reduced version of the postclitic variant. This reduction of melodic material is due on the one hand to licensing failure (of the element Η in the onset and of L, for nasality, in the nucleus). In addition, the regular lowering of the nasal vowels ¿j ΐ to 3, ε (by the addition of an A element) does not affect the proclitic variants because no additional melodic material can be licensed in a pretonic nucleus. These facts seem to imply that the power to license Η in an onset melody (or whatever property endows that power) is transmitted from left to right, starting from the stressed nucleus. The representations of tr~ ho and i~ he are given in (14). (14) The partial GP representation of υ ~ ho and i~ he (The arrow t I represents melody licensing of onsets by the following nucleus, and represents internuclear Ή in onset melody licensing') tone (H/L) line

(H)

(L)

I/U line

Û • "Sil

(H) (L)

Ο O/N line

# 0

Ν

Η

Ν t

I

phonetic υ Therefore any preceding nucleus can license the Η melody of the onset in the postclitic variants ho and he. The proclitic variants never have a preceding nucleus. Note that despite the failure of inter-nuclear melody licensing, the

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John R. Rennison

elements U and I of υ and /, respectively, are always realized phonetically (i.e. are never reduced to schwa or zero). It is also no accident that only the elements I, U, A, out of the full set of elements in the theory11 (cf. this footnote) can occur alone in unstressed onsetless syllables. The other elements are banned from ever appearing alone in a nucleus, in whatever position, in Koromfe. The restriction of 'initial' nuclei to the vowels ι, υ, a was seen to apply to pretonic initial syllables. When an empty onset precedes a stressed nucleus, however, the choice of vowel is reduced even further: to a. All the lexical words in my corpus with an initial empty onset before a stressed vowel are given in (15). (15) Words with an initial empty onset (excluding the grammatical morphemes given in (5) above) Singular abbahola alkamisa a l b / halb / jallo abmetu arba ario / jaría arkilla arzeka / arzeke

Plural abballala alkamisafi albba / hallaba / jalbba alarne tafi arbafi / arbama arba / jarba arkillafi arzeksuu

'onion, garlic' Arabic 'Thursday' Arabic 'enemy' 'match' Fr. allumette 'Wednesday' Arabic 'blacksmith' Mòoré 'striped material' Arabic 'wealth, treasure' Arabic

All the words in (15) are nouns and are also almost identical in Mòoré: there are no vowel-initial verbs or adjectives.12 In native vocabulary there are two words (apart from the article a already mentioned) which begin with a - the pronouns ala 'who (interrog. & relative pron.)' and ase 'what (interrog. pron.)'. The first is stressed on the first syllable, but ase is stressed on the second (which to me implies that the a is either the initial article a or a fossilized remnant of the pronoun a / a of the third person singular human which still survives in Mòoré as the regular pronoun and human singular noun-class suffix form a and in the Koromfe human singular noun-class suffix form -o). In either case, these two pronouns pattern along with the 'vowel-initial' grammatical morphemes in (5) above. Two of the words given in (15) have alternative forms with a filled initial onset h or /, and both seem to be loans which have been in the language for a long time. 3 The melody of these adapted loans is typical for minimal filling of onsets: the glides h and j each contain only one element - H and I, respectively. Here, the licensing of the onset melody H is no problem because the nucleus

Syllables in Western Koromfe

323

which follows it is stressed. The element I is the 'ambient 14 element' for the vowel coloring process of phrase-final filling (cf. sec. 4.2.2.1 below). However, this diachronic development of onset filling cannot be considered to be a synchronic constraint; it is optional for some words, and applies only when the following nucleus is stressed.15

4.1.2.2. Word-internal empty onsets As mentioned in section 2.1 above and exemplified in (37) and (38) below, Koromfe has long vowels and (heavy) diphthongs, both of which are analyzed in GP terms as an NON sequence, where the sandwiched onset is empty and is licensed by the presence of the two neighboring, lexically filled16 nuclei (cf. van der Hulst & Ritter, this volume, on the notion of interonset government). Such structures are parametrically licensed in Koromfe and Mòoré, thus any lexical vowel which occurs short can also occur long (with the already noted gap of * Cu+Vj - >

CyVjVj CwV¡Vi

c. Ca+V¡

->

CV,V¡

Ce+V¡

CyV¡V¡ [lexical] Co+V¡ CViVj [postlexical]

->

CwViV¡ [lexical] CVíVí [postlexical]

->

In order to obtain this result, if we were to postulate a single 'input-output' application of LVS, NHD would have to apply differentially to the output, sensitive to the lexical/postlexical distinction. In a derivational approach, one might apply LVS first lexically, followed by NHD applying only to /a/, and then postlexically, with NHD applying to /i/ and /e/, as well as /a/.16 In all of the relevant examples, the rule of LVS assures that no Luganda syllable will surface with two non-identical vowels. Whether NHD applies or not, the bimoricity of the input is preserved. However, when morphemes are concatenated, it is possible for a string to have up to five vocalic moras in sequence. As the literature has repeatedly established, Luganda syllables are maximally bimoraic. The examples in (15) and (16) respectively show three and four vocalic moras occurring in the underlying representation being reduced to a single bimoraic syllable on the surface: (15)

tû-eê-lâb-a we-refl-see-FV

(16) a.

tû-nâa-eê-lâb-a —> [tù.néé.là.ba] we-Fi-refl-see-FV tû-â-eê-lâb-â —> [twéé.làb-à] we-P2-refl-see-FV

b.

- » [twéé.là.ba]

'we see ourselves'

'we will see ourselves' (Fi = today future) 'we saw ourselves' (P 2 = general past)

It should be noted that the reflexive morpheme and the Fi 'today future' both have underlying long vowels. They appear not only in the above examples but also elsewhere in preconsonantal environments where length is unconditioned cf. [n.tém.à] Ί cut' vs. [nn.éé.tèmà] Ί cut myself, pres.'; [tù.tèm.à] 'we cut, pres.' vs. [tu.náá.tém.á] 'we will cut'. In (15) the first person plural SM tû- and the reflexive prefix -eê- provide three moras in sequence. LVS spreads the /e/ of the reflexive onto the mora of tû-, thereby producing surface trimoraic *twêeê-. In (16a), the Fi today future marker -nâa- is followed by the reflexive prefix -eê, thereby creating a sequence of four vocalic moras. LVS spreads the /e/ of the reflexive into both moras of the F) prefix, producing the unacceptable quadrimoraic output *neeee. In the input in (16b) there are two opportunities for LVS to apply: the /a/ of the P2 past tense spreads leftwards onto the mora of the first person plural SM tû-, and the /e/ of the reflexive prefix spreads onto the mora of the P2 marker -a-. With N H D of the /a/, this yields the unacceptable sequence *tweeee. As

The syllable in Luganda

357

indicated in the outputs in (16), the moraic lengths of /e/ in each case must be pared down to two. For this purpose, Clements (1986) proposes the rule of Vtrimming in (17). (17) Clements' 'V-trimming':

VQ

-» 0 /

V V

Recall that in Clements' CV framework, vocalic moras are represented as V slots. The rule in (17) deletes all V slots that precede a VV sequence. The derivation in (18) shows how Clements' rules would apply to the relevant part of the form in (16b). (18)

a. C V - V - V V I ι ι V t u a e

b.

C V - V - V V Λ V t w a e

c.

d.

C V V Λ V t w e

C V - V - V V -

The input in (18a) shows three vowels linked to four V slots. In (18b) the lui relinks to the preceding C slot by Clements' rule in (5a), while the /a/ delinks by his rule in (9a). This is followed in (18c) by the leftward spreading of the vowel /e/ (Clements' rule in (5b)). Finally, V-trimming (17) applies in (18d), removing the first two V slots.17 In a moment we will reformulate V-trimming in moraic terms. But first let us consider how it is possible to get five V slots in a row. In order to demonstrate this, we need to consider geminate consonants. We saw in the examples in (2b) that the first half of a geminate counts as a mora. Thus, any long vowel that precedes a geminate consonant will be automatically shortened, as seen in (19). (19) a. tû-a-"tt-a we-P2-kill-FV b. tû-ee-'tt-a we-refl-kill-FV c. tû-a-ee-"tt-a we-P2-refl-kill-FV

-»

[twât.tà]

'we killed'

->

[twét.tà]

'we are killing ourselves'

-»

[twét-tà]

'we killed ourselves'

In (19a) the geminate of -~tt- 'kill' is preceded by two vocalic moras. After LVS applies, the intermediate representation is *tw-àà-tt-à. As Tucker (1962), Clements (1986), and others have pointed out, the first half of a geminate is tone-bearing, hence moraic and joins a preceding vowel to form a syllable. Thus, the syllabification of this intermediate string would be *[twáát.tá] with an

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

unacceptable trimoraic syllable. The vowel preceding the geminate thus shortens. The same results are obtained in (19b), where there are three vocalic moras preceding the geminate, and in (19c), where there are four. A derivation of (19c) in Clements' framework is provided in (20). (20) 'V-trimming'from left to right (Clements 1986) a. CVi-V 2 -V3V4-V 5 C-V 6 Μ V V I t u a e t a

b.

CV, -V2 -V3V4 -V5 C -V6 Λ - ^ / ζ ν I tw e t a

c. C V4 V 5 C V6 A I V I tw e t a As seen, Clements represents a geminate as a consonant linked to a VC sequence on the CV tier. Example (20a) shows the relinking of lui to the preceding C slot by (5a), and the delinking of /a/ by (9a). In (20b) the vowel Id spreads by (5b) to the preceding two V slots, and in (20c) V-trimming (17) removes the first three of the five successive V slots. Thus, five vocalic moras (V slots) are reduced to two. The moraic analysis could in principle proceed in similar fashion, with excess moras being trimmed from the left. We will, however, depart from Clements' V-trimming in two ways. First, we shall assume that the 'trimmed' moras are not the leftmost ones, but rather excess internal ones. And second, we will assume that the reason they are trimmed is that they fail to be parsed into the syllable. As shown in (21), we will adopt an 'edge-in' association of moras to syllables.18 (21) Edge-in syllabification of moras + stray erasure: (some tonal evidence) σ σ σ σ a. μ-μ-μμ-μ-μ

A I V \Λ

tua

e t a

ι

b. μ Ι -μ 2 -μ3μ4-μ5-μ6

A ^ y

t w a e

\ Λ t a

Λ

ι

c. μι μ 5 μ 6

Αν \

twe t a

The input form is given in (21a). In (21b), LVS has applied, followed by NHD, which delinks the /a/. This creates a form in which the /e/ of the reflexive morpheme is linked to four moras. As also seen, only the first and fifth moras are syllabified by the edge-in algorithm. As a result, moras 2, 3 and 4 are stray erased in (21c).

The syllable in Luganda

359

The evidence for this departure from Clements' view is tonal. As background, consider the two geminate-initial verbs in (22). (22) a. ku-ggul-a ku-"dduk-a b. bâ-ggul-a bâ-"dduk-a

[kug.gu.la] [kùd.dù.ka] [bâg.gul.a] [bàd.dù.ka]

'to open' 'to run' 'they open' 'they run'

The verb root -ggul- 'open' is underlyingly toneless, while the verb root - "ddukhas an underlying HL contour on its first (=geminate) mora. As seen in (22a), the H of the HL contour is realized on the underlyingly toneless infinitive prefix ku-, while the L of the contour is realized on the next syllable. In (22b), the class 2 SM bâ- 'they' has an underlying HL contour. When followed by the toneless root -ggul-, the contour surfaces on the vowel of the first syllable. When tonic bâ- is followed by tonic -'dduk-, the two HL contours simplify on their one syllable, and the same surface realization is obtained as in [kùd.dù.ka] in (22a).19 With this background, we are now ready to consider cases that involve strayerasure of excess moras. Consider the forms in (23). (23) a. a-nâa-ggul-a b. a-nâa-"dduk-a

[a-nâg.gu.la] [a-nàd.dù.ka]

'he will open' 'he will run'

In each form the geminate-initial verb root is preceded by the F ¡ future prefix nâa-.20 As seen, the output in (23 a) is with a falling tone on the syllable [nâg], while the output in (23b) has a H tone on [nád] followed by a L tone on [dû]. Consider in (24) what would happen if the leftmost of the three moras were trimmed: (24) a.i.

b.i.

H L \ /

a.ii.

μ A / n a

μ

H

L

μ A / n a

μ

μ I g b.ii. μ I g

H L

H L

\/

\/

μ μ A / n a

μ I d

H L μ μ A / n a

H L μ I d

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

C.l.

η

H

L

μ A /

μ a

d.i.

H Λ \ μ μ Α / η a

μ 1 g

L 1 μ A η

C.ll.

d.ii.

Η

L μ I d L

Α μ μ A I η ad

μ I a g

Although this does not affect the argument about to be made, the derivation in (24) follows the analysis of Hyman & Katamba (1993a). As seen in (24a), underlying tonicity consists of a HL contour. In (24b) the rule of Contour Simplification (CS) has applied, which delinks the L of a HL contour from its mora when followed by another mora. This L links to the following mora in (24c.i). In (24c.ii), where the L is wedged between two Η tones, it is deleted, and the two H's fuse into a single Η by a process of Η tone plateauing21. Following Clements' proposal of V-trimming from the left, (24d) shows the structure that results if we delete the leftmost mora.22 Initial mora-deletion creates no difficulty in (24d.ii), where the correct bimoraic Η tone syllable is derived. However, with the first mora deleted in (24d.i), its Η is now floating and a L is linked to the now initial mora, thereby incorrectly deriving a L tone bimoraic syllable. We know that Η tones never spread to the right in Luganda (and except for a very specific phrasal phenomenon, they do not dislodge L tones). Instead, such free Η tones, when they are realized, always link to the preceding mora. In this example, the preceding mora is a word-initial vowel, which cannot be Η in Luganda. The expected result, then, would be for the Η either to be passed onto the preceding word or to be stray erased. Since this does not happen, we assume that the first mora is not deleted in (24).23 Of course Clements' V-trimming rule can be reformulated as in (25). (25)

V-trimming revised:

VQ

-> 0 / V

V

Or, one could revise (25) to adopt our claim that the excess moras (V slots) are stray-erased because they fail to be syllabified, as in (21). Either way it would still be useful to have more empirical evidence distinguishing leftmost V-trimming vs. internal stray erasure. It would be critical for this purpose, if Luganda, for example, provided an input of the form in (26).

The syllable in Luganda

(26)

C

V, C V, C V3 V4 V5 ...

361

(ifV 3 is'trimmed', the H will be lost in its C W syllable)

H In this case a H is linked to Vi, V2 and V3, which are in three different syllables, the last of which has the problematic input of more than two moras. As seen, the H is linked only to V3, i.e. the first V in the third syllable. If this V3 were 'trimmed', the H would thus be lost on the third syllable by the general principles of autosegmental phonology.2" Unfortunately, the morphology of the language seemingly conspires against providing a relevant sequence of formatives that would produce this output. The best case we have come up with concerns the WH-^ei tense illustrated in (27). (27) a. o-âa-sib-i-e = ki b. o-âa-lâb-i-e = ki

[wàà.si.byee.ki] [wáá.lá.byéé.ki]

'what have you tied yet?' 'what have you seen yet?'

The only underlying contour in (27a) occurs on the first mora of the tense marker -âa- in (27a). In (27b), there is a second contour on the verb root -lâb'see'. By the regular tone rules of Luganda, a H plateau surfaces from the first mora of -âa- to the tonic mora of -lâb-. Now consider the corresponding forms that are obtained when a -Co- verb root from (13d) is substituted for the above -CVC- roots: (28) a. o-âa-mo-e-jd-e = ki b. o-âa-pô-e-jd-e = ki

[wàà.mwed.de.ki] [wáá. jiwêd.de.ki]

'what have you shaved yet?' 'what have you drunk yet?'

A comparison of these forms with those in (27) reveals that the perfective ending is -j-e following a consonant, but -jd-e following a vowel, the latter being converted by rule to -dd-e (cf. Appendix).25 In order to get the [e] of the surface syllables [mwed] and [pwêd], we have placed an additional morph -e-. Now, if this vocalic morph is moraic, as it is everywhere else in the language, we have the input we seek: (29)

H μ I o

L

μ μ V a jí o e

j d e

It should be clear that if μι were to be trimmed in (29), the incorrect tonal output *[wáá. jiwèd.de.ki] would be obtained. As indicated in note 14, there are however other interpretations of the μ 2 vowel formative -e-. In addition, even if

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Larry M. Hyman ά Francis X. Katamba

the vowel sequence /o-e-j-/ is trimoraic, it is possible that it has been trimmed at the stem level before the prefix -âa- is added. While the tonal facts suggest that stray erasure should apply to medial moras, a stronger argument will be made from the perspective of the syllabification process itself. As we shall see in sections 4.2 and 4.3, syllabification is cyclic in Luganda. That fact plus the preference for CV syllables will automatically result in the retention of the first and last moras of vocalic sequences.

3. The optimal syllable

Taking our inspiration from Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince & Smolensky 1993), we present in this section evidence in favor of the following surface syllable preferences in Luganda:

(30) a. b. c.

CV V CVV

» » »

V VV

cvcv

(30a) states that Luganda disprefers syllables lacking an onset, which can occur only after pause. This then is strong instantiation of Itô's (1989) constraint Avoid a[V.26 According to (30b), syllables with simplex (monomoraic) nuclei are preferred. Although Luganda allows CVV (30c), i.e. a syllable with a complex bimoraic nucleus, which goes against the preferred choice in (30b), rarely does it allow an onsetless syllable with a bimoraic nucleus which violates both constraints (30a) and (30b). Finally, as we argue below, where it has a choice, Luganda prefers to build a single CVV syllable rather than two CV syllables (30c). This minimization of the number of syllables constructed, which can be attributed to Prince & Smolensky's (1993) constraint *STRUC(a) (avoid structure with respect to syllables), is the one place where a W nucleus is preferred to V nucleus. In this section we shall exemplify the validity and see the utility of the three preference statements in (30). In (31) we summarize the syllable-related phenomena that are related to or are at least in part motivated by (30), particularly by the need to avoid VV syllables:

The syllable in Luganda

(31)

a. b. c. d. e. f. g.

363

Motivation for the hierarchy in (30)

the occurrence of V (and syllabic N) syllables only after pause the near non-existence of [VV]„ the lack of root morphemes that begin +VVC (or VQQ) the replacement of class 1 SM a- by e- when followed by a V the lack of CL when onsetless /e-, o-/ are followed by a V y / 0 alternations at the beginning of root morphemes the non-tone-bearing status of the moraic nasal 'N' in onsetless [VN]CT

We begin by considering the status of V-initial syllables.

3.1. V-initial syllables We have already established that onsetless syllables can only appear after a pause. In all other positions the vowel that begins a word joins the preceding syllable (recall the examples in (3b), (4c) and (8)). This is true even if there is an assertion break (%) occurring between two words, as in a right dislocation, as in (32). (32) /tû-mu-lâb-a % ô-mu-âna/ —> [tú.mú.lá.bóó.mwáá.na] we-him-see-FV aug-cl.l-child 'we see him, the child' In addition, we have asserted that Luganda has no VV syllables. As pointed out by a number of scholars (e.g. Tucker 1962, Cole 1967, Stevick 1969), the one exception to this statement is that post-pausal vowels actually vary in duration. Thus, the augment vowels / e o a / may be short or long when followed either by a plain consonant in (33a) or by a preconsonantal nasal in (33b).27 (33) a.

b.

e-bi-tabo o-mu-limi a-ba-limi e-n-jovu o-n-sib-a a-n-sib-a

'books' 'farmer' 'farmers' 'elephant' 'you sg. tie me' 'he ties me'

[e.bi.ta.bo] [o.mu.limi] [a.ba.li.mi] [en.jo.vu] [on.si.ba] [an.si.ba]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

[ee.bi.ta.bo] [oo.mu.limi] [aa.ba.limi] [ee.njo.vu] [oo.nsi.ba] [aa.nsi.ba]

What we propose is that the VV realization is stylistic or expressive and, as is often the case, intonational features produce a structure that would not normally occur in the output of the phonology proper. In terms of OT we can say that stylistic initial lengthening is optional, but outranks the prohibition against W syllables. As seen in (33), this variation is categorical: Independent of whether a NC sequence follows, there is a clear distinction between a short vs. long

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

realization of the initial vowel. The vowel duration that is optionally observed in (33b) is thus due to intonation, rather than to lengthening before preconsonantal nasals (see sec. 5.1).28

3.2. Lack of root morphemes that begin +VVC The second property that is explained by the prohibition against VV syllables is the non-occurrence of root morphemes that begin W C . Limiting our attention to verbs, there are roots of the shape -al- 'spread' and -er- 'sweep'. However, no roots exist such as *-aal- and *-eer-. Two kinds of evidence unambiguously establish that the initial vowel of verb roots is underlyingly short. The first of these can be seen from the forms in (34), where verb stem reduplication adds the meaning of 'to X here and there': (34) a. (ku-) al-a (ku-) er-a

'to spread' 'to sweep'

-» (ku-) al-aa - yal-a —> (ku-) er-aa - yer-a

[kwaa.laa.ya.la] [kwee.raa.ye.ra]

b. (ku-)lim-a (ku-) gul-a

'to cultivate' -> (ku-) lim-aa - lim-a 'to buy' —> (ku-) gul-aa - gul-a

[ku.li.maa.li.ma] [ku.gu.laa.gu.la]

c. (ku-) saab-a

'to smear —» (ku-) saab-a - saab-a oneself, refi. ' 'to smear -> (ku-) siig-a - siig-a s.o./s.th.'

[ku.saa.ba.saa.ba]

(ku-) siig-a

[ku.sii.ga.sii.ga]

(34a) shows that the first FV is lengthened following a -VC- root in reduplication. A comparison with (34b) and (34c) shows that this lengthening applies only when the FV is preceded by exactly one mora. Further complications involving this construction are discussed in section 5. For our present purposes, it should simply be noted that the initial [y] that occurs on the second stem in reduplication is followed by a short vowel in these examples. Given the appearance of this [y], it would have been logically possible for Luganda to have an opposition between root initial /V/ vs. /VV/. A hypothetical underlying representation such as /-aal-/ would not only require that the first FV be short, but also that the second part of the reduplicated stem surface as [yaa.la], with a perfectly fine CVV initial syllable. Since no such alternations exist in the language, we conclude that Luganda roots may not begin with an underlying long vowel. The second piece of evidence for this conclusion is tonal. The forms in (35) show the tonal realization of vowel-initial stems in the non-subject cleft construction:

The syllable in Luganda

(35) a. (ènó gyè tu-) al-â29 (ènó gyè tu-) er-â 1 2 b. (eno gye tù-) lim-â (ebyo bye tù-) gul-â 1 2 c. (guno gwe tu-) saâb-a (zino ze tu-) siïg-a

365

'it's this that we spread' 'it's this that we sweep'

[twàà.lâ] [twèè.râ]

'it's this one that we cultivate' 'it's these that we buy'

[tù.li.mâ] [tù.gù.lâ]

'it's this that we smear' 'it's these that we smear'

[tù.sàà.bà] [tù.sii.gà]

12

In this construction30 a HL contour is assigned to the second mora (M2) of the stem. In (35a) we see that the stem-initial vowel is counted as one TBU for this purpose. In this regard it behaves identically to the CVCV stems in (35b) rather than the C W C V stems in (35c).31 If the stem-initial vowel were bimoraic, we would have obtained outputs such as *[twáá.lá] and *[twáá.gá.lá]. Both reduplication and tonal evidence thus point towards root-initial vowels as being short. Recall that while roots may not begin + W C , they may begin +VNC. We attribute this to the [+cons] specification of the nasal. It is important to note in this context, however, that roots beginning +VQQ are also not found.32 Since the first half of the geminate is phonetically a consonant, one might expect to find such roots, just as one finds roots such as -anj- 'spread out' which begin with a +VNC sequence. We can explain this gap by treating the first half of the geminate as a vowel (cf. Clements' 1986 representation of Luganda geminates as VC). Specifically, in our analysis we would have to derive +VQC¡ from underlying N\d which clearly violates the prohibition against root initial +VVC. At a later stage in the derivation /VjC/ is converted to [VC¡C¡], What this means is that roots may not have the structure [ W , i.e. a branching nucleus following a left bracket. We believe that this is related to the prohibition of VV syllables in general in the language. The output of stratum 1 (stem-level) phonology must not therefore contain such a sequence. While root morphemes may not begin with a long vowel, a small number of grammatical morphemes do, e.g. the reflexive prefix -eê- seen in many of the examples. Since it is not unusual for affixes to escape root-structure constraints, we needn't be concerned.

3.3. Replacement of class 1 subject marker a- by class 9 eAnother property of Luganda that we believe to be related to the avoidance of bracket-initial VV and VV syllables concerns the allomorphy of the class 1

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(singular human) SM. As seen in (36a), the regular allomorph of the class 1 SM is a-: (36) a. b. c.

a-làb-à a-ki-láb-á e-láb-á e-ki-láb-á y-a-láb-á y-aaka-láb-á y-éé-làb-a

'he/she sees' a-kyáá-láb-á 'he/she sees it' a-náá-láb-á 'it sees' e-kyáá-láb-á 'it sees it' e-néé-láb-á33 'he/she/it saw' 'he/she/it has just seen' 'he/she/it sees self

'he/she still sees' 'he/she will see' 'it still sees' 'it will see'

The forms in (36a) show a- followed by a verb root, an object marker (OM), and two tense markers (TM's), all of which begin with a consonant. In (36b) we see that the class 9 (singular animal) SM has the shape e- in the same preconsonantal environments. In (36c), however, where the SM's are directly followed by the reflexive OM or a TM that begins with a vowel, the two noun classes merge. Earlier analyses of Luganda or closely related languages have occasionally accounted for this fact by positing a peculiar phonological rule by which /a-/ glides to [y] before a vowel. We shall depart from this interpretation and suggest that the class 1 SM a- is replaced by the class 9 SM e- before a vowel by a morphological rule. The class 9 e- then glides to [y] by the regular phonological rule in (14b). Such a process whereby one morpheme is replaced by another in a specific phonological (or grammatical) context has been called a 'rule of referral' (Zwicky 1987, Stump 1993) or 'take-over' (Carstairs 1987). The rule of referral in Luganda is expressed as in (37a) and is responsible for the first step of the derivations in (37b).34 (37) a.

a-» e[class 1 SM] [class 9 SM]

/

V

b. /a-a-lâb-â/ -» /e-a-lâb-â/ —> [ya.là.bà] 'he saw' /a-aaka-lâb-a/ —» /e-aaka-lâb-a/ —> [yaa.ka.là.bà] 'he has just seen' /a-eê-lâb-a/ —» /e-eê-lâb-a/ -> [yéé.là.ba] 'he sees himself Once class 1 a- has been taken over by class 9 e-, gliding applies to create the [y]. The reason, we suggest, for this take-over is to avoid an initial VV syllable. When a- is replaced by e-, this sets up the possibility of deriving a [yV] or [yVV] initial syllable. The last example in (37b) shows that e- glides to [y] even before another /e/. We have seen in other cases that sequences of identical vowels are realized as a single long vowel. In our view, this latter option is blocked here, because a VV syllable would result. Instead, a more optimal

The syllable in Luganda

367

realization is obtained by allowing /e-/ to glide before another /e/.35 In case e- is followed by a short vowel, the output is monomoraic for reasons to which we now turn.

3.4. Lack of CL when onsetless /e o/ are followed by a vowel In (3), (8), (12) and elsewhere we have seen examples where a vowel either glides or is deleted, with compensatory lengthening of the following vowel. Additional examples are given in (38a). a.

b.

'it saw' 'we saw' 'they saw' 'he/she/it saw' 'you sg. saw'

kî-â-lâb-â tû-â-lâb-â bâ-â-lâb-â e-â-lâb-â o-â-lâb-â

-» -> - *

->

[kyàà.là.bà] (cl. 7) [twàà.là.bà] [bàà.là.bà] [ya.là.bà] (cl. 1, 9) [wa.là.bà]

As seen in (38b), however, CL is not observed when the gliding vowel is not itself preceded by a consonant. Further examples of this contrast are seen in (39). (39) a. ky-ee= ki-kópò lw-ee= lu-ggi b-ee= b-ààna

'it's the cup' b. y-e= loolê 'it's the lorry' [cl.9] 'it's the door' y-e= mw-ààna 'it's the child' [cl. 1] 'it's the children' (< ba-e-)

In this construction the copula is expressed by the morpheme /-e/ which combines with the appropriate noun class prefix. In (39a) we see that when this prefix is of the underlying shape CV-, gliding or deletion applies, accompanied by CL. The resulting length surfaces because length is preserved on proclitics (Hyman & Katamba 1990). In (39b), on the other hand, the vocalic class 9 prefix e- glides to [y] without CL. (We also see that class 1 a- is again replaced by class 9 e- by the rule of referral in (37a).) One solution, suggested by Clements (1986), would be to introduce a mora truncation rule which can be informally stated as in (40a) or (40b).36 (40) a.

μ

μ

I I [e,o V

μ / \ e,o V

b.

μ

0

/

μ

I I [ e,o V

The mora of an initial Id or loi is deleted before another vowel but the vowel itself survives and gets realized as a (non-moraic) glide. As a result, underlying /e+V/ and /o+V/ sequences are realized as short [yV] and [wV], What is crucial

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is that the V in (40a) does not simply spread onto the preceding mora by the LVS rule in (6). Our contention is that this would be the equivalent of a W syllable, which is prohibited on the surface in Luganda. Now it turns out that, in other cases, these same morphemes glide and we observe [ y W ] and [ w W ] syllables. As seen in (41), however, this only arises when the following morpheme has an underlying long vowel:37 (41) a. y-éé-làb-a w-éé-làb-a b. y-aa= mulondo w-aa= mulondo


appear with almost equal frequency in the lexicon (87 vs. 85 verb roots, respectively, in Snoxall 1967). The second problem is that unstable-j is invariably followed by one of three morpheme-initial short vowels in the language: Id, loi and /a/. That is, stable- and unstable-}» contrast only when the following vowel is [-high] and short. This vowel may not be followed by a geminate, but it may be followed by a NC cluster.4" If unstable-}' is underlying, how do we relate its distribution to the generalization that morphemes must not begin with a high vowel? We might therefore reformulate the rule as in (47). (47)

y —» 0 / C V +

[-high] C V

However, even with the short [-high] vowel environment being stipulated, as in (47), there would be many lexical exceptions to the rule.45 This problem is automatically taken care of in the second logical analysis: unstable-^ is epenthetic. In this case, we set up underlying forms such as /-er-/ 'sweep', /-oger-/ 'speak' etc. Since such roots are entered in the lexicon as vowel-initial, they meet the general morpheme structure condition of the language that prohibits words and root morphemes beginning with /i/ and /u/.46 The first problem with this analysis, however, is how to formulate the rule. As was seen in (45b-e), the left hand environments in which unstable-}1 appears are quite varied: after a -V- morpheme, a long vowel, a nasal, or 0 . Not only would it be difficult to conflate the preceding environment of the rule, one would also have to build into it that the [y] is inserted only at the beginning of a root (or stem). As seen in (48), a [y] is not inserted between vocalic prefixes: (48) a. b.

o-a-lâb-â o-eê-lêet-a

[wa.là.bà]47 [wéé.lèè.ta]

'you saw' 'you bring yourself

*[o.ya.là.bà] *[o.yéé.lèè.ta]

In (38a) [y] is not inserted when the 2 sg. SM o- is followed by the P2 TM -a-, and in (48b) it is not inserted between the o- SM and the reflexive prefix -eê-.4S A second potential complication involves the interaction of ^-insertion with the takeover rule in (37a). Consider the input in (49), which meets the structural description of both the takeover rule in (37a) andj-insertion.

The syllable in Luganda

(49) a. ([y]-epenthesis) /a + er-a / -> a-yer-a -> b. (takeover + gliding) /a + er-a / -> e + er-a ->

[a.ye.ra] *[ye.ra],

373

'he sweeps' *[e.ye.ra]

The correct output is seen in (49a), where ^-insertion precedes (and hence bleeds) the takeover rule responsible for replacing class 1 a- with class 9 e-. If takeover were to apply first, the incorrect output would be derived in (49b).49 Although both rules are in part phonologically conditioned, takeover is a morphological process establishing allomorphy, while ^-insertion is a phonological rule. One would normally assume that allomorphy would be established before the application of a phonological rule.50 First, however, let us consider a phonological strategy which appears to us to be less problematic than the foregoing - and which derives the correct result from the syllable hierarchy in (30). The solution is to give special status to unstable-^. One possibility raised by Peterson (1993) is to represent unstable>>'s as 'ghost consonants'. Following the work of Zoll (1993, 1996) one could represent unstable-^ as an I'll lacking a root node. In the right context, a root node would be supplied so that the segment could be syllabified as [y]. If not supplied a root node, the rootless /i1 would be stray erased. The drawback of this solution is that we have no explanation for why unstable-^ appears only at the left edge of a root morpheme. Our own preference is to view unstable-^'s as extraprosodic /y/ that is invisible at the stem level. This makes two correct predictions. First, because of the peripherality condition (Hayes 1982), extrametricality accounts for why unstable-^ is found only at the beginning of a domain. Second, if we adopt Inkelas' (1989) account of extrametricality, unstable-^ cannot be seen by virtue of its being external to the stem domain. This explains why the visible part of the stem must meet the general condition that the initial vowel of a morpheme is limited to short /e/, loi or /a/. Our analysis can be illustrated by means of the derivations in (50). (50) a.

[ye.ra]

μ I e

μ A r a

b.

[a.ye.ra]

μ I

μ A e r a

c.

[twéè.ra]

μ I e

μ A ra

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Ka tamba

11.

iii.

σ σ I1 ιι μ μ Λ I y e r a σ ιI μ ,-Ί y e

σ μ Λ r a

σ ιI μ μ I I a- y e

σ ιι μ Λ r a

σ ιι μ μ A I t u- y e

σ

σ ιI μ Λ r a

σ I μ

μ μ I Ί a- y e

μ

t u - ye

σ μ Λ r a σ μ Λ r a

All examples begin with the representation in (50i): The initial lyl of the root -yer- is extrametrical at the left edge of the stem. Despite the constraint in (42a), one forms a V syllable after the left stem bracket so as to avoid strayerasure of the initial [e] at the end of the stem phonology. In (50ii), the lyl becomes visible when a subject prefix is added in (50b, c), or in the case of the imperative in (50a), which has no prefix, the lyl becomes visible at the word level. At this point the preferences in (30) come into play. The question in each derivation is whether to syllabify the lyl as an onset or to leave it unparsed. In (50a.iii), the lyl syllabifies because the resulting CV syllable is preferred over the initial V syllable that would otherwise result. In (50b.iii) the lyl syllabifies for the same reason. In (50c.iii), on the other hand, the lyl is not parsed. Instead, the mora of the SM tû- joins with the initial vocalic mora Id of the verb root to form a bimoraic syllable. If the lyl had been parsed we would have obtained *[tù.yè.ra], i.e. two CV syllables. As we indicated in (30c), a single CVV syllable is preferred over two CV syllables. When given a choice, the language will first construct a CVV syllable before considering other options. Getting the CVV syllable is thus ranked higher than parsing the lyl. This stands in contrast with the results in (50b): Here parsing the lyl was ranked higher than forming a V or VV syllable. These outputs thus result from the interaction of constraints, ranked in the following order: (51) a. b. c.

Avoid a[V51 Minimize structure Principle of preservation ('parse')

The first constraint due to Itô (1989) states that onsetless syllables are to be avoided. The second constraint says that structure should be minimized (cf. the constraint *STRUC of Prince & Smolensky 1993). Finally, borrowing the principle of preservation from Paradis & LaCharité (1993) or the notion of 'parse'

The syllable in Luganda

3 75

from OT, the constraint in (51c) says that features in the input should be realized in the output. Now consider how this hierarchy works when the same verb is preceded by a long vowel or by a moraic nasal, as in (52). (52)

a. [kwéé.yè.ra]

(i)

σ σ I I μ μ I Λ e r a σ

σ

μ μ μ

μ

V ι e -y e

(ii)

b.

[n.jer.a] σ


e r a

Α r a

μ μ I I η -y e

μ Λ r a

Λ r a

μ μ I /I η -y e

μ Α

(iii) μ μ μ V / I e -y e

r

a

i

(iv)

j

σ . -Λ •

μ

\

μ μ

Λ - V k u - e

μ -

μ

Α Α y er a

We again begin in (52i) with stems whose initial /y/ is extrametrical. In (52a.ii) the reflexive prefix -eê- is added, while in (52b.ii) the 1 sg. SM η- is added. (52iii) shows that the /y/ is parsed to create a [ye] syllable in both cases. The alternatives include either not building any additional syllables at all, which is unacceptable, given that [ye] is perfectly well-formed, or building one or more onsetless syllables. In (52a.iii) the reflexive morpheme cannot itself be syllabified, since that would require creating an onsetless syllable, -eê- thus remains unsyllabified until another prefix is added, e.g. infinitival ku- in (52a.iv).S2 As seen, the first and third available moras link to this syllable by the edge-in process referred to in section 2. In the case of (52b.iii), the nasal mora cannot begin a syllable (by itself or with the vowel /e/) because it would create an

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

onsetless (i.e. non-branching) mora. Instead, the /y/ must be parsed and, as indicated, will strengthen to [j] because of the preceding nasal.53 While such hierarchies are common (see Prince & Smolensky 1993 and the growing literature on OT), what makes Luganda unusual is that it can put off syllabification of vowels until a later stage in the 'derivation'. Consider, in this light, what the alternatives are in realizing the representation in (50b.ii): (53) a. The mora of a- is linked to a syllable with /e/, and the /y/ is not parsed. b. The mora of a- and the following /e/ are linked to their own syllables, and the /y/ is not parsed. c. The /y/ is parsed with the following /e/ as a CV syllable, and the mora of a- is linked to a newly constructed syllable. d. The /y/ is parsed as an onset to the next syllable, and the a- is moraically licensed at the left edge of the form. Assuming that the unparsed /y/ does not block NHD (11), the first two choices result in the same surface output *[ee.ra]. (53a) creates an initial VV syllable, while (53b) creates two V syllables in succession. The correct form [a.ye.ra] is produced by (53c): The CV syllable is formed with the visible /y/ followed by a new syllable being formed with the mora of a-. This output is preferable to the two earlier ones because it both avoids VV (the least preferred syllable) and has the two syllables V and CV rather than two V syllables. The last possibility in (53d) differs only slightly from (53c): this variant allows the a- to remain unsyllabified, a vowel being moraically licensed at left edge of its domain.54 (53d) has the advantage of not constructing lexical syllables in excess of what is needed postlexically. Recall that all Luganda words end in a vowel, and that this vowel is always tautosyllabic with an immediately following vowel in the next word.55 Assume that an initial vowel syllable a- is constructed by (53c). If another word is placed before it at the phrase level, its final CV syllable will have to combine with the initial a- syllable. In other words, one of the syllable nodes would have to be removed. If we wish Luganda syllabification to be strictly structure building, and never structure changing, we must not allow cito become a syllable. This can only be accomplished by prohibiting onsetless syllables except when preceded by pause.56

4.2. Cyclic syllabification We have thus far established that the hierarchy in (51) is responsible for y / 0 alternation in Luganda, and that the ranking proposed guarantees that unstabley will be taken only if it is needed to avoid an onsetless syllable. We have also demonstrated that syllabification cannot be done in one step at the phrasal level,

The syllable in Luganda

377

as implicitly assumed by previous researchers, but rather must proceed in stages. The question is whether syllabification is cyclic, i.e. applying every time a morpheme is added, or whether it is non-cyclic. The y/0 alternation suggests that syllabification is cyclic. The argument is seen from a comparison of the correct vs. incorrect realizations of the input tû-a-er-a 'we swept' in (54). (54) Sensitivity to single prefix = cyclic syllabification? a.

[twàà.yè.rà] σ σ

/ K T t

U-

b.

*[twéèrà] σ

σ

Λ a- y e

σ

λ r

a

t

u- a-y e

r

Λ a

In (54a) we see that unstable-^ must be parsed to obtain surface [tw-àà-yèr-à]. However, why don't we obtain (54b) instead? We saw in (50c) that a C W output is preferable to a CVyV one (where the [y] is from unstable-y). So why shouldn't the C W output of *twéèrà be preferred to the C W y V output of twààyèràV7 The answer is that it should be, but is not available because syllabification is not non-cyclic, as in (55a), but rather cyclic, as in (55b). (55)

(a) non-cyclic: *[twéè.rà] (i)

σ σ I I μ μ I Λ e r a

(b) cyclic: [twàà.yè.rà] σ

σ I I μ μ I Λ e r a

(ii) μ Λ

μ Ι

μ Λ

μ

μ

Α

t u - a - y e r a (iii) σ σ ...--""Ι I ... Tμ - - Jμ Αμ t u - a - y e r a

μ I

I

μ A

- a - y e r a σ / \ μ μ Α ι t u - a

σ I μ Λ - y e

σ I μΛ r a

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

The assumption in Bantu phonological studies, if any, has been that the préfixai (stratum 2) phonology is non-cyclic, as in (55a). Here all prefixes are brought in at the same time, in (55ii). With this assumption, however, edge-in association of moras into syllables produces the wrong output in (55iii). The correct output is seen in (55b), where the past tense prefix -a- is brought in first in (55ii), thereby causing now visible unstable-^ to link to the following mora. The subject prefix is then brought in and syllabified separately in (55iii). The argument for cyclicity is that the y/0 alternation is determined locally with respect to the shape of the preceding morpheme. In order for this to go through we must, however, have a clear notion of the morphemic structure of prefixes. One potential problem concerns prefixes that appear to have the shape C W - . There appear to be two of these in the language: near future (Fi) -nâaand persistive ('still') -kîa-, two tense markers, which were both illustrated in (45c). Compare the derivations in (56). (56)

(a) cyclic -nâa-: *[a.néè.ra] (i)

σ I

μ

I

(b) cyclic-V-: [a.nàà.ye.ra]

σ

σ

μ

μ

I Λ e r a (ii)

μ μ Λ / -η a

-




σ I

I

μ

Λ e r a

σ

σ

μ

μ

μ

μ

Λ r a

I

/ι y e

r

μ

μ

I y e

. γ .

μ Α a

(iii)

μμ,.

μ

I a-η a - y e

μ

μ

μ

Λ r

a

μ

I Λ , ' 1 Λ a-η a - V - y e r

μ Λ a

The extrametrical /y/ in (56a.i) becomes visible when the Fi T M -nâa- is added in (56a.ii). As seen, however, in (56a.iii), the first ( C V ) mora of -nâa- potentially syllabifies with the vocalic mora /e/ of the root. The incorrect output *[a.néè.ra] is produced instead of the correct [a.nàà.ye.ra] 'he will sweep'. If persistive -kîa- were treated the same way, we would likewise derive *[a.kyéè.ra] instead of the correct [a.kyàà.ye.ra]. The correct outputs thus require that /y/ be parsed when preceded by CVV. (56b) shows how this can be

The syllable in Luganda

379

done by treating these two prefixes as bimorphemic -nâ-V- and -kî-a. In (56b.ii) the empty vocalic mora -V- is prefixed on its own cycle. At this stage the /y/ links to the mora of the following /e/ and a CV syllable is correctly derived. In later cycles the F! morph -nâ- and the class 1 SM a- are added. As seen in the output in (56.b.iii), syllabification proceeds without complication. (Rightward vowel spreading observed in 56b occurs elsewhere in Luganda and will be dealt with in sec. 5.1 below.) The decision to treat Fi -nâ-V- as bimorphemic is easily justified by comparing the affirmative and negative forms of the Fi tense in (57): (57) a.

b.

tû-nâ-V-yer-a bâ-nâ-V-yer-a kî-nâ-V-yer-a te-tû-V-yer-ê te-bâ-V-yer-ê te-kî-V-yer-ê

[tù.nàà.ye.ra] [bà.nàà.ye.ra] [ki.nàà.ye.ra] [té.túú.yé.ré] [té.báá.yé.ré] [té.kii.yé.rê]

'we will sweep' 'they [class 2 human] will sweep' 'it [class 7] will sweep' 'we will not sweep' 'they [class 2] will not sweep' 'it [class 7] will not sweep'

The affirmative Fi is marked by [nàà], while the corresponding negative is marked by the lengthening of the vowel of the SM. Our analysis is that the formative -nâ- appears only in the affirmative F u while the underspecified vocalic mora -V- occurs in both affirmative and negative forms. Since only -Macan precede the empty -V- in the affirmative, one can mistakenly conclude that there is a single -nâa- formative. We instead set up two formatives -nâ-V- in order to account both for the length alternations in the F ι in (57) as well as to account for the realization of unstable-^ in (56). Concerning -kîa-, while there is no evidence from Luganda specifically, other nearby languages have -ki- as their persistive, e.g. in relative clauses in Kirundi (Meeussen 1959). It is clear that two formatives -kî-a- were involved historically - and, if we are correct, still function as such in synchronic Luganda. With the potential problematic cases of - C W - prefixes analyzed as bimorphemic CV-V-, we now seek to test the cyclic hypothesis with the reverse situation: a CV préfixai syllable that has the bimorphemic structure C-V-, i.e. a C- prefix followed by a V- prefix. The one possible case of this in the language is not unambiguous, but it is instructive. It concerns the negative prefix, which, as seen in (58a) precedes the SM: (58) What if a C-V- sequence ofprefixes precedes a root? a. te-bâ-lâb-â te-tû-lâb-â

[te.bà.là.bà] [te.tù.là.bà]

'they do not see' 'we do not see'

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

b. t-ê-lâb-â t-ô-lâb-â t-â-lâb-â

[té.là.bà] [tó.là.bà] [tà.là.bà]

'it [cl. 9] doesn't see' 'y° u s g· don't see' 'he/she doesn't see'

(?< /te-ê-/) (?< /te-ô-/) (?< /te-â-/)

Where preceding a -CV- SM in (58a), the main clause negative prefix is te- and two CV syllables are realized without event. In (58b), where the SM has the shape -V-, however, we observe that the resulting coalesced syllable is unexpectedly monomoraic. If we assume the underlying representations shown in parentheses to the right in (58b), this would be the only place in the language where a préfixai CV-V- sequence surfaces as short. In addition, the negative prefix te- in (58a) is the only CV prefix that has the vowel [e]. Recall from earlier discussion that the only shapes of CV- prefixes in Luganda are Ci-, Cu-, and Ca-. What we would like to suggest is that the negative prefix has the vowelless allomorph /t-/ in prevocalic position. This would then be the only case in the language a C-V- préfixai sequence occurs - and, as we have, the result is a CV syllable coming from two different morphemes. With this assumption we are now ready to consider the realization of -er- 'sweep' in the present negative: (59) a.

b.

te-bâ-er-â te-tû-er-â

[tè.béé.râ] [tè.twéé.râ]

'they do not sweep' 'we do not sweep'

t-ô-yer-â t-â-yer-â t-ê-yer-â

[tô.yé.râ] [tà.yé.râ] [té.yé.râ]

'you sg. don't sweep' 'he/she doesn't sweep' 'it [cl. 9] doesn't sweep'

In (59a), the [y] of -er- is not parsed. Since the root is preceded by the SM's -bâ- and -tû-, which have the shape CV-, these latter then syllabify with the following vocalic mora of the verb root, as expected. Turning to (59b), it is noted that the [y] of -er- is parsed even though it is preceded by one of three phonetic CV syllables: [tó], [tá], [té]. As seen in (60a), if this C-V- préfixai sequence had been available all at once, we would have expected the [y] of -er- not to parse, and instead get realizations such as *[twéé.râ], *[téé.râ] and *[tyéé.râ], (60) (a) (i)

non-cyclic: *[twéé.râ] σ σ I I μ μ I Λ e r a

(b) cyclic: [tô.yé.râ] σ σ I I μ μ I Λ < y> e r a

The syllable in Luganda (ii)

σ ι

μ κ J y Τ" t- 0 - y e

σ ιι

μ

μ

Λ r a

I -0-

σ Ιι

σ ιι

μ

/I

μ

y e r

Λ a

σ I

σ I

σ I

Λ t- 0-

Λ

Λ

(iii)

μ

μ

y e

381

μ

r

;

In a non-cyclic analysis such as (60a), this incorrect result would be obtained whether one recognized underlying /t-/ or /te-/.58 This is because the extrametrical /y/ of the verb root would be able to see the whole prefix string at once. Since either te-V- or t-V- begin with a consonant, the /y/ would not parse and instead a C W syllable would be formed. Our analysis, then, is that prefixation is cyclic. As a result, as seen in (60b), the extrametrical lyl will become visible when the SM's o-, a- and e- are added alone. This is exactly what is also needed for sequences such as o-â-(y)er-a to be realized as [wa.yé.rà] 'you swept', rather than *[wéé.rà]. Each formative is thus introduced on a separate cycle at which point the constraints in (51) determine whether unstable-^ will be parsed. Before we leave this subject, let us consider a few other relevant facts from the negative paradigm. The relative clause forms in (61) and (62) correspond to the main clause negatives seen earlier in (58) and (59). (61) a.

by-e bâ-tâ-lâb-â by-e tù-tâ-lâb-â

b. by-e ô-tâ-lâb-â by-e â-tâ-lâb-â by-e ê-tâ-lâb-â (62) a. by-e by-e b. by-e by-e by-e

bâ-tâ-yer-â tù-tà-yer-à ô-tâ-yer-â â-tâ-yer-â ê-tâ-yer-â

[bye.bâ.tà.là.bà] [by e. tû. tà. là. bà]

'the ones they don't see' 'the ones we don't see'

[byóó.tò.là.bà] [byàà.tà.là.bà] [byéé.tè.là.bà]

'the ones you don't see' 'the ones he doesn't see' 'the ones it doesn't see'

[bye.bá.tá.yé.rá] [bye.tú.tá.yé.rá] [byóó.tó.yé.rá] [byáá.tá.yé.rá] [byéé.té.yé.râ]

'the 'the 'the 'the 'the

ones they don't sweep' ones we don't sweep' ones you don't sweep' ones he doesn't sweep' ones it doesn't sweep'

As seen, in relative clauses, the negative relative marker -tâ- occurs after the SM. The vowel of -tâ- assimilates to the preceding o- or e- SM (cf. also note

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Larry M Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

33). Surprisingly, the /y/ of -er- 'sweep' parses in (62), even though it is preceded by a CV morpheme. This is the sole exception to the generalizations we have outlined above. The only solution to it that has occurred to us would be to treat -lâ- as the combination of two formatives -t-â-, i.e. the main clause negative marker followed by an -â- formative. Consider, finally in this connection, the forms in (63): (63) a. sî-lâb-â b. by-e sî-lâb-â

[si.là.bà] [bye.si.là.bà]

c. [1 sg. SM + negative]

->

Ί don't see' 'the ones I don't see'

*te-n-n-lâb-â *bye n-tâ-lâb-â

si-

The data in (63a, b) show that both in main clauses and in relative clauses the combination of a 1 sg. SM and a negative TM is realized with the portmanteau morph si- by the spell-out rule in (63c). In other words, the formative si- overrides the expected sequences *te-n- in (63a) and ή-là- in (63b). What this means for the cyclic account of Luganda prefixation that we propose is that si- preempts whichever of the two morphemes [ 1 sg. SM] or [neg] it first encounters: in the main clause, where NEG comes outside the SM, si- will be spelled out in place of the 1 sg. SM -«-. In the relative clause, where the SM comes outside NEG, si- will be spelled out in place of NEG -tá-.59 With this in mind, now consider the realization of -er- in (64). (64) a. sî-er-â *te-n-jer-â

[séé.râ]

Ί don't sweep'

b. by-e sî-er-â [bye.séé.râ] 'the ones I don't sweep' *by-e ή-tâ-yer-â

*si-yér-â *by-e si-yér-â

The non-parsing of is as expected, since si- is a single formative, i.e. since it comes in on one cycle. In this sense it differs from the forms in (59b), where the combinations of NEG + vocalic SM have the shape CV (e.g. [tó]), but come in two cycles, i.e. [t- [o-.

4.3. Edge-in syllabification is cyclic syllabification To summarize, the preferred syllable types in (30) are predicted on the basis of the ranked constraints in (51). With cyclicity and these constraints established, we are now in a position to address the edge-in syllabification of overloaded moraic sequences. Recall the example in (19c), repeated in (65).

The syllable in Luganda

(65) tû-a-ee-"tt-a we-P2-refl-kill-FV

-»

[twét-tà]

383

'we killed ourselves'

The underlying form in (65) has a C V V W V sequence which must be 'trimmed' into a single bimoraic syllable.60 In section 2 we discussed Clements' V-trimming rule that removes V slots from the left. Tonal evidence was adduced for internal stray erasure to trim excess medial V slots. In our moraic account, we proposed that if syllabification proceeded in an edge-in fashion, the excess medial moras of a C V V W V sequence would fail to be syllabified and would be stray-erased, as shown in (66). (66)

σ

a. μ - μ - μ μ - μ - u

Λ I Ve ΝΑ t a

t u a

b.

σ I μ^ - μ2 - μ 3 μ4 - μ5 - μβ t w a e

\Λ t a

c.

t w

It may seem unfortunate, however, that we have had to invoke edge-in assignment of moras to syllables, rather than the more usual left-to-right linking. However, we suggest that this edge-in effect may only be an artifact. Once we recognize the syllable preferences in (30) and the constraints in (51) and (42a), we can derive this edge-in effect by our demonstration that syllabification is cyclic in Luganda. The cyclic analogue to non-cyclic edge-in syllabification in (66) is given in (67).

384

(67)

Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Ka tamba

a.

σ

σ

μ

μ

\ Αt

b. μ a

d.

νe

σ

σ

μ - μ

μ

ν t\

σ

σ

μ - μ - μ μ - μ

μ

Λ Γ"-νe

t u a

t

c.

a

σ

ϊa ' Ve '

σ

μ

\Λ t a

\Λa

We begin in (67a) with both moras of the stem /"tta/ syllabified. When the reflexive prefix /-eê-/ is added in (67b), the prohibition against a W syllable (including VC¡) blocks the syllabification of either of its moras. The same is observed in (67c) when the P2 tense marker /-â-/ is added. It is not until the CV mora tû- 'we' is added in (67d) that syllabification can proceed: as seen, the CV mora joins with the V (=Q) mora to form a bimoraic syllable. The intervening moras are then stray-erased.61 In (67) we thus derive the edge-in nature of syllabification by a combination of two formal devices: (i) the constraints in (51) and (42a); and (ii) cyclic syllabification. While V syllables are permitted, VV syllables are avoided at all stages of the derivation. When a - W - prefix such as reflexive /-eê-/ is involved, one of two things happens: first, neither mora may be syllabified, as (67c), because to do so would create a VV syllable. Or, in the case of an input such as /tû-eê-lâb-a/ 'we see ourselves', its second mora is syllabified (rather than its first) because this satisfies the constraint against bracket-initial V syllables in (42a). In such a form, the mora of /tû-/ will also be syllabified so as to create a CVV syllable, and the medial mora (= the first mora of /-eê-/ is strayerased.62 Thus, the syllable hierarchy in (43) - coupled with cyclicity - yield the apparent edge-in association.

S. A problem for level-ordered phonology

In the preceding sections we have thus motivated a cyclic process of syllabification which starts internal to the stem and then moves progressively outward, taking in one prefix at a time. The effect, as we have just seen, is an edge-in association of moras in case more than two must be squeezed into a bimoraic syllable. We have also seen that stem-initial y / 0 alternation is conditioned by

The syllable in Luganda

385

optimizing the syllable outputs relative to the principles in (30), (42) and (51). The analysis we have presented would lead one to conclude that one can proceed derivationally to effect all of stratum 1 (stem-level) phonology 'before' going on to stratum 2 (word-level) phonology. In this section we show that a rule application paradox arises if we interpret the strata as domain-ordered, i.e. if we insist on completing the stem-level phonology before moving out to consider the prefixes at stratum 2. In order to appreciate the problem we first introduce the moraic nasal in section 5.1.

5.1. The moraic nasal In the preceding sections we saw that a hierarchy of constraints determines which moras will be syllabified vs. stray-erased. An additional element figuring in the moraic equation, but not yet treated, is the preconsonantal moraic nasal. Just as a vowel or a geminate consonant contributes a mora to a syllable to its left, so does a nasal that is immediately followed by a homorganic oral consonant.63 The major difference between such NC sequences and geminates is the vowel lengthening that applies before the former. As seen in (68), vowellengthening before a NC sequence is pervasive: (68) a. Within morpheme:

ku-gend-a ku-bing-a

b. Across morphemes: ku-ñ-sib-a [lexical] ku-n-tûm-a c. Across words: [postlexical]

—> —»

[ku.gee.nda] [ku.bii. ηga]

'to go' 'to chase'

—» —»

[kúú.nsi.ba] [kúú.ntú.ma]

'to tie me' 'to send me'

bu-tâ-lâb-â + n-te -> bu-tâ-lâb-â + n-go -> cl. 14-neg-see

[bu.tà.là.bàà .nte] 'to not see cows' [bu.tà.là.bàà ^go] 'to not see leopards'

In (68a) the moraic nasal /n/ is tautomorphemic with the following oral consonant, while in (68b) the N+C cluster occurs as the result of prefixation of the first person singular object prefix /-n-/.64 In (68c) the nasal is the class 9/10 prefix which comes in contact with the preceding vowel across a word boundary. As seen in (68), whatever the source of the VNC sequence, in all cases the preceding vowel is lengthened. Clements (1986) accounts for this in the twostep fashion seen in (69).

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

(69) a.

V

V

C

b.

V

[+nasal]

V

[aF]

As in the case of geminate consonants, which Clements set up as VC on the CV tier, the moraic nasal is linked to a V slot and forms a VC with the following consonant. In (69a) the nasal both delinks from its V slot and relinks to the following C. This creates a vacant V slot to which the features of the preceding vowel spread. In this fashion, Clements is able to view the increased vowel duration as a case of compensatory lengthening. As was true of his gliding rule in (5a), Clements' rule in (69a) creates a single segment, a prenasalized consonant. There is good durational evidence for this view, since the vowel lengthening is quite considerable in Luganda, even greater than that in closely related languages (Hubbard 1994, 1995, Maddieson & Ladefoged 1993). Clements' rightward spreading rule in (69b) is the mirror image of his leftward spreading rule in (5b). Converting Clements' insights into our moraic framework, what we need is a process that will convert the input in (70a) into the output in (70b). (70) Rightward vowel spreading (RVS) a.

μ

μ

/ \V

C

N

I

μ C

b.

μ

/V\

μ

/ C\ /V

μ N

/CΝV

As seen, the nasal in (70a) relinks to the following mora in (70b). The mora of the preconsonantal nasal is filled by a process of rightward vowel spreading (RVS) which is analogous to the LVS process seen in (6). If done in two steps, this input-output relation of nasal relinking with compensatory lengthening can logically be effected in one of the two ways in (71). (71) 'Push ' vs. 'drag ' versions of the CL trigger a.

μ

Αe / n

g

μ

μ d

Α a

b.

μ

Αg

μ e

μ n

Αa

d

In (71a) RVS has applied, 'pushing' the nasal off of its mora. The freed nasal then relinks to the following mora, which now has the shape NCV. In (71b) the nasal first delinks from its mora and relinks to the following mora. This then 'drags' the preceding vowel onto the freed mora by RVS.

The syllable in Luganda

387

Either of these conceptions will work, as will a non-ordered, input-output relation. What must be recognized in either case is a crucial condition on RVS: the vowel that spreads must be in a CV mora. Of the three distributions of the moraic nasal in (72), RVS will apply only in (72a), where the preceding mora is CV: (72) a.

μ

μ

A l C V

Ν

b.

μ I [V

μ

c.

I Ν

μ ι [Ν

RVS and delinking will not apply to a VN sequence in (72b), which recall occurs only bracket-initially in Luganda, because a VV syllable that would result fatally violates the highest ranked constraint on syllable structure in this language and so, when it is generated by the grammar, it is screened out and fails to surface (see 30, 31). Finally, note that delinking does not apply to a string-initial moraic nasal in (72c), which will be moraic (and syllabic) if occurring after pause. Evidence for the failure of RVS to apply to the structure in (72b) comes from tone. Consider the forms in (73), which correspond to those cited earlier in section 3.2: (73) a. (eno gye tù-) lim-â (ebyo bye tù-) gul-â 1 2 lagîr-a b. (ono gwe tu-) (ono gwe tu-) sasûl-a 1 2 c. (guno gwe tu-) saâb-a (zino ze tu-) siîg-a 12

'it's this one that we cultivate' 'it's these that we buy'

[tù.li.mâ] [tù.gù.lâ]

'it's this one that we command' [là.gi.rà] 'it's this one that we pay' [sà.sù.là] 'it's this that we smear' 'it's these that we smear'

[tù.sàà.bà] [tù.sii.gà]

As indicated, in the non-subject cleft construction, a HL contour is assigned to the M2 (second mora) of underlyingly toneless verb stems. All preceded moras are realized with surface L tone. By the regular tone rules, the M2 is realized H, while the following moras, if any, are realized L. In case the M2 is the second mora of a CVV syllable, as in (73c), the whole syllable is realized H. This is because Luganda does not permit rising tones. Now compare the analogous forms in (74) involving NC sequences:

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

(74) a. (ono gwe tu-) (zino ze tu-)

liñd-a biñg-a 12 b. (guno gwe tu-) anj-â (tutyo bwe tu-) end-â 1 2 c. (zino ze tu-) ambâl-a (eno gye tu-) ongêr-à 1 2

'it's this one that we wait for' 'it's these that we chase'

[tù.lii.ndà] [tù.bii.qgà]

'it's this that we spread out' [twàà.nj-â] 'it's thus that we commit adultery' [twèè.nd-â] 'it's these that we wear' 'it's this that we increase'

[twàà.mbà.là] [twòò.qgé.rà]

The forms in (74a) show that -CVNC- roots act the same way as the - C W C roots in (73 c): The HL is assigned to the second mora which, as indicated, belongs underlyingly to the preconsonantal nasal. On the surface, the preceding vowel is of course lengthened and, since rising tones are not permitted in Luganda, the whole syllable is pronounced on a H pitch. This situation contrasts with the tones observed on the vowel-initial verbs in (74b,c). In these examples, the HL contour is assigned to the second syllable - as if the initial VN sequence counted as one mora. Evidence that this sequence cannot be monomoraic comes from the verb stem reduplication process also seen in section 3.2. The reduplicated verb forms in (75) have a frequentative ('again and again') or distributive meaning ('here and there'): ( 7 5 ) a. (ku-) lim-a (ku-) gul-a

'to cultivate' 'to buy'

—> —>

(ku-) lim-aa - lim-a (ku-) gul-aa - gul-a

[ku.li.maa.li.ma] [ku.gu.Iaa.gu.la]

b. (ku-) saab-a (ku-) siig-a

'to smear' 'to smear'

—> —>

(ku-) saab-a - saab-a (ku-) siig-a - siig-a

[ku.saa.ba.saa.ba] [ku.sii.ga.sii.ga]

c. (ku-) lagir-a (ku-) sasul-a

'to command' - » 'to pay' —>

(ku-) lagir-a - lagir-a (ku-) sasul-a - sasul-a

[ku.la.gi.ra.la.gi.ra] [ku.sa.su.la.sa.su.la]

As seen in (75a), if the verb root is monomoraic, the FV that links the two stems is lengthened. However, as shown in (75b,c), the FV does not lengthen if it is preceded by two (or more) moras. In other words, the FV is lengthened just in those cases where it is in M2 position in a stem. Now consider the verb stems with NC in (76). (76) a. (ku-) lind-a (ku-) bing-a b. (ku-) anj-a (ku-) end-a

'to wait' 'to chase'

-> ->

(ku-) lind-a - lind-a (ku-) bing-a - bing-a

[ku.lii.nda.lii.nda] [ku.bii.qga.bii.qga]

'to spread out' —> (ku-) anj-a - yanj-a 'to fornicate' -» (ku-) end-a - yend-a

[kwaa.nja.yaa.nja] [kwee.nda.yee.nda]

The syllable in Luganda

c. (ku-) ambal-a (ku-) onger-a

'to wear'

—> (ku-) ambal-a-yambal-a [kwaa.mba.la.yaa.mba.la]

'to increase'

-»

389

(ku-) onger-a - yonger-a [kwoo.nge.ra.yoo.nger.a]

As seen, there is no lengthening of the first FV in any of these forms. What this means is that the -VNC- roots in (76b) must not be monomoraic. The nasal counts as a mora in determining that the following FV will be short. Given this fact, there must be another explanation as to why in (74b,c) the M2 tones are assigned to the second syllable of stems beginning with VNC. Somehow verb roots such as -anj- and -end- must be bimoraic (because of FV non-lengthening in (76)), but have only one tone-bearing unit (TBU). As argued by Hyman (1992), TBU's are defined in Luganda and several other Bantu languages as either (a) the first mora of a syllable, or (b) the second mora of a syllable if it dominates a [-cons] root node. Adopting Zee's (1988) strong/ weak labeling of the moras, we thus have the mora/TBU counts in (77). (77)

a.

σ

C V V [2 TBU's]

b.

σ

V N [1 TBU]

c.

σ

Ν

d.

*σ

V

Co

[1 TBU]

As indicated in (77a), a syllable will be bimoraic and consist of two TBU's only if it is C W . This includes cases where the second mora is the first half of a geminate consonant, and it includes CVN syllables which have undergone the RVS.65 What it excludes is the configuration in (77b): a bimoraic VN syllable will count as one TBU, because RVS does not apply to it. Consequently, the second mora in (77b) is [+cons] and fails to meet either of the conditions for being a TBU.66 The nasal in (77c), on the other hand, is a TBU, because it is the first (hence strong) mora of its syllable - and thus escapes the condition on consonantality, which applies only to the second (weak) mora. The question to be addressed now is why RVS should be sensitive to whether a trigger syllable has an onset. The answer to this question is that Luganda has the constraint in (77d): a bimoraic, bivocalic syllable that lacks an onset is prohibited. We thus add the above facts to the list of phenomena motivated by the *a[VV(C) constraint in Luganda.

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

5.2. A problem Now that we have analyzed the moraic nasal and determined that a bimoraic VN sequence constitutes a single TBU, we return to our analysis of the y / 0 alternation. Recall that we have assumed in this analysis that unstable-^ is extrametrical at the left edge of a stem (=stratum 1) and thus does not become visible until word level (stratum 2), when either a prefix is added or there is no prefix in the case of the bare imperative. In this stratally segregated approach, the stratum 1 phonology takes place prior to the introduction of information from stratum 2. That is, we have thus far followed the classical model of lexical phonology (Kiparsky 1982). In this section, we show that this model cannot be maintained. Specifically, a problem arises in the tonal realization of roots that alternate between -VNC... and -/VNC.... Compare the forms in (78) with those in (79). (78) a. (guno gwe tu-) (tutyo bwe tu-)

anj-â end-â

'it's this that we spread out' 'it's thus that we commit adultery'

[twàà.nj-â] [twèè.nd-â]

1 2 b. (zino ze tu-) (eno gye tu-)

ambâl-a ongêr-à

'it's these that we wear' 'it's this that we increase'

[twàà.mbâ.là] [twòòqgé.rà]

1 2 (79) a. (guno gwe a-) yarij-a (bwatyo bwe a-) yeñd-a 12 b. (zino ze a-) (eno gye a-)

yambal-a yoñger-á 12

'it's this that he spreads out' 'it's thus that he commits adultery' 'it's these that he wears' 'it's this that he increases'

[gwàà.yàânj-à] [bwàà.yéénd-à] [zàà.yààmbà.là] [gyàà.yôcrçgè.rà]

In all of these verb forms, a HL contour is assigned to the second TBU of the verb stem, which is always the second mora (M2). In (78), repeated from (74b, c), the HL is assigned to the second syllable because the initial VN counts as a single TBU. In the forms in (79), which involve the same verb stems, the HL is assigned to the nasal since it is preceded by a CV mora and thus counts as a TBU. These data demonstrate that the realization of unstable-^ has an important effect on the tonology. If it is preceded by a CV- prefix, e.g. tu- 'we' in (78), it will not be realized and the initial VN will count as one TBU. If it is preceded by a V- prefix, e.g. a- 'he/she' in (79), unstable-^ will surface, and the / V N sequence will count as two TBU's.

The syllable in Luganda

(80)

a. σ

b. σ

σ

Λ I

Λ Λ

μ μ

a η j a

y

an

c. σ

σ

μ

μ μ

391

d. ΗL

σ

Λ μ Λ y/Va η Α j a j a

μ

/ν

y a

V μ

μ

[

η j

As shown in the derivation in (80), unstable-^· must be syllabified prior to RVS and M2 stem-tone assignment. The representation in (80a) shows the extrametrical unstable-^ in angled-brackets, as we have thus far assumed. Hence the first syllable has the shape VN. In (80b), the unstable-^ becomes visible and joins the first mora of the initial syllable. This is followed in (80c) by RVS and relinking of the nasal to the next mora. Finally, the HL contour is assigned to the second TBU in (80d), which, as seen, is the M2 of the first syllable. Had unstable-^ continued to be extrametrical throughout the steps in (80), RVS would not have applied to VN, and the M2 HL would instead have been assigned to the second stem syllable. The problem of course is that one doesn't know if unstable-^ will surface, as it does in (80), until leaving stratum 1, i.e. until knowing what the shape will be of the preceding prefix (if any). We assume that the assignment of HL to the second mora of the stem is a stratum 1 rule, since it makes specific reference to the stem domain. We thus appear to have a situation where stratum 1 M2 tone assignment must look ahead to see what will happen at stratum 2. This would appear to create a paradox: The fate of unstable-^ must await the syllabification of the preceding prefix, and if the assignment of the stem M2 HL tone must also await the fate of the unstable-^, it would appear that stem level HL is assigned after prefixation, i.e. after we have passed from stem to word level in the derivation. Consequently, the derivation would have to keep track of what is within vs. outside the stem, even after the addition of a prefix, since the latter is not calculated in the mora count. Also, we would have to make sure that word-level RVS and prenasalization do not precede the assignment of the M2 HL tone. One way to maintain the lexical model and independent stratal morphology and phonology would be to abandon a strictly phonological analysis in favor of one in terms of allomorphy. In this analysis, we would assume that every socalled vowel-initial verb root would have an alternate form with initial /y/ conditioned by the subcategorization illustrated by means of the verb roots in (81).67

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

(81) a. 'sweep'

: -er-yer-

b. 'spread out' : -anj-yanj-

/

+CV +

/

+CV +

As before, the vowel-initial allomorphs are restricted to occurring in a single frame: when immediately following a CV prefix (informally represented by the + boundaries). By choosing the stem alternant that is appropriate, we can immediately determine what will be the second TBU for the assignment of M2 tone. We will assume that the phonological conditioning of allomorphy proposed in (81) can still be motivated by the syllable structure considerations for which we have argued above. This analysis, however, has several undesirable consequences: First, since the advent of generative phonology, other things being equal, phonological analyses have been preferred over morphological ones. In this case every root that begins with unstable-^ will have to be entered with two allomorphs. We have considered only verb roots thus far, but the same issues pertain to noun roots as well (cf. sec. 5.3)® Second, both allomorphs of these roots would have to be extended by derivational suffixes and the FV morpheme before determining which 'allomorph' is used with which preceding prefix. In other words, this is not a case of allomorphs but rather 'allostems', forms which consist of at least two, and potentially many more morphemes. We know of no precedent for such a phenomenon. Finally, there is a potential third problem, depending on the validity and interpretation of Carstairs' (1987) peripherality principle by which the shape of inner morphemes cannot depend on the presence of outer morphemes. It is expected that when there is allomorphy, the shape of an affix depends on the base to which it is attached, not the reverse. In this allomorphy interpretation of y / 0 alternation, the root allomorph (or allostem) is inserted on the basis of a prefix, which appears to be quite unusual across languages. We, therefore, disprefer an analysis with allomorphy and instead opt for one where the strata are more integrated than usually assumed.69 Specifically, we propose that the rules we have presented in this study are input-output relations, some of which have specific requirements based on the domain of application. For example, we summarized in (14) a difference in the gliding of mid-vowels that was dependent on lexical vs. postlexical domains. In such a case, the inputoutput relation must also be checked against whether a mid-vowel comes to be followed by another vowel within the same word or across words. Such input-output conditions are, of course, the cornerstone of non-derivational approaches to phonology such as optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993, McCarthy & Prince 1993, 1994). Returning to the problem at hand, we

The syllable in Luganda

393

can say in this theory that the M2 HL must be assigned to the second stem TBU of the output.10 Specifically, we don't count the vocalic mora that results from RVS at stratum 2. Thus, the verb form [twaa.njâ] in (78a) has the input structure in (82a). (82) a.

b. μι

Λ t U

v-2 μ3 [

μ4

IIA a η j a

μι

HL I μ3 μ4

Αt w/ a n/Κ j a

Because the second stem mora (μ3) dominates a nasal and is not a TBU, the HL tone is assigned to the FV in (82b). If we had counted the vocalic shape of μ3 in the output in assigning the stem tone, then the HL would have been assigned to it (and we would have obtained *[twáá.njá]). In the account proposed thus far we have blocked this by referring to the input nasal that constitutes μ3. In our earlier terms, μ 3 is not a TBU. Note, however, that reference to the output sponsoring of moras by domains allows a different interpretation. If we maintain coindexing of μ3 and μ4 with the stem, then we can revise our account and say that the HL must be assigned to the second stem mora of the output. This is made possible by the fact that μ2 is stray-erased as per our proposed edge-in syllabification of moras. So, in just the case where unstable-^ is not syllabified and a stem begins with two non-branching moras, only one of these stem moras will survive into the output. We, therefore, assume stem-licensing of moras which carries through to the output. The price we pay is having to identify which moras are sponsored by the stem and which are not. However, the other pay-off, as we have seen, is that we may be able to avoid having to refer to the nasal '...μ^...' in (77b) as different from other moras. In this revised account all moras are TBU's that make it into the output.

5.3. A true case of allomorphy In the preceding section we rejected an analysis with allomorphy to account for y / 0 alternations. However, there is a clear case of allomorphy that intersects with these alternations in an interesting way. This concerns the class 5 noun prefix which Meeussen (1967) reconstructs as */ - in Proto-Bantu (PB). We have mentioned in passing (cf. also the Appendix) that PB */ has a geminating effect on following consonants. This effect is evidenced in the class 5 nouns in (83a).

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p-péèsà t-tâmà c-cúpá71 k-kúbó b-bálá d-dibà j-joola j-jibâ g-gùùmbà g-gwáági f-fiimù v-vííví s-sàvù z-zikè j-jubâ

'button' (< Sw.) b. 'cheek' 'bottle' 'road' 'stain' 'skin, hide' 'length of cloth' 'dove' 'bone' 'centerpost of house' 'spear' 'knee' 'fat, lard' 'chimpanzee' 'dove'

pipi Pipi. pipiPipi. pipi. Pipi. pipi. pi

ma-péèsà ma-tàmà ma-cùpà ma-kùbò ma-bàlà ma-libà ma-joola ma-yibâ ma-gùùmbà ma-wààgi ma-fiimù ma-viivì ma-sàvù ma-zikè ma-yubâ

The geminate is not present in the corresponding plurals in (83 b), which are marked by the prefix ma-. These plurals also show that /I y w/ geminate as [dd jj ggw], respectively. Now consider the class 5 nouns in (84a-c). (84) a.

ly-ààto ly-eenvû ly-óóvù ly-anda

'canoe' 'ripe banana' 'acne' 'piece of charcoal'

d.

pl. mà-àto pl. m-eenvû [no plural] pl. mà-nda

b.

li-ggwâ lí-nnya lí-miyo

'thorn' 'name' 'tooth'

e.

pl. pl. pl.

ma-ggwâ má-nnya má-ñnyo

c.

lí-iso

'eye'

f.

pl.

mà-àso

In these forms, the class 5 prefix is /li-/, which corresponds to PB *di-.12 This allomorph of class 5 is used when the root begins with a vowel, as in (84a). It is also used when the root begins with a geminate consonant in (84b). This follows from the fact that geminates derive from */', which is still possible as a synchronic analysis, hence /jgwá/ 'thorn', etc. (cf. Clements' 1986 VC representation of geminates; also Borowsky 1983a). The one noun in (84c) reconstructs as *-icò and should therefore have produced *[lisso], but geminate [ss] is avoided here (also in the plural in (84f)), although it is found elsewhere in the language (cf. s-sàvù 'fat, lard' in (83a)). Comparing the class 5 nouns in (83) with those in (84) we discover that there is a completely general allomorphy: the geminator j- is used if the noun stem

The syllable in Luganda

395

begins with a consonant, the prefix lì- is used if the noun stem begins with a vowel (or geminate, which functions like a vowel). The relevance of the data in (84) to our study is that these vowel-initial noun stems all derive from the unstable-j phenomenon. Since there are no noun class prefixes of the shape V-, this can only be shown when such stems are preceded by the N- prefix of singular class 9 or plural class 10. Thus, consider the following nouns which are marked by class 11 lu- in the singular in (85a) and class 10 N- in the plural in (85b): (85) a. lw-ààla lw-eeyo lw-óoka lw-ookyo c. 1Ù-ÙSO

'fingernail' 'broom; brush' 'internal pain' 'red-hot iron' 'long glance'

b.

d.

pipi. pl. pl. pl.

n-jálá n-jeyo n-jókà n-jokyo n-zisò

'tribal body marks'

As seen, the unstable-^ fails to appear after the CV prefix lu- in (85a), but appears in hardened form [j] after the prefix N- in (85b). In other words, unstabley fails to appear in classes 5/6 in (83) because the prefixes li- and ma- have the shape CV-. However, if one compares the stem in (84c,f) with its related realization in (85c,d) one observes that in the latter the underlying unstable-^ of -V so- is realized as [z] in (85d). In addition, for reasons outlined in the Appendix, unstable-^ may not be realized before the vowel [i]. We can thus assume that all of the roots in (83) begin with an unstable-j which does not surface in classes 5 and 6. The question is: why doesn't it surface in class 5? Or, put slightly differently, given the two allomorphs of class 5, gemination (/j-/) and li-, why is it the latter that is chosen for stems beginning with unstable-j? As seen in (86), stems that begin with stable-^ undergo the same gemination as other stems that begin with a consonant: j-jamba j-jêmbe j-jibâ j-jinja j-jùtè j-jùùga

'small fish (sp.)' 'horn, charm' 'dove' 'stone, rock' 'boil' 'projecting jaws'

b.

pi. Pipi. pi. Pipi.

ma-yamba mà-yêmbe ma-yobâ ma-yinja ma-yùtè ma-yùùga

What is lacking is a single case in the language where a class 5 noun with initial j-jV... obligatorily alternates with ma-V..., as would be expected of an unstabley. The only nouns that even hint at this possibility are the three indicated in (87).

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

(87) a. b. c.

j-jano 'wonder, marvel' (< Nyoro i-hano, /i-panof) j-jayo 'mouldy, musty smell' (cf. lw-aayo = j-jayo) j-jebe 'dried fruit of a tree'

pl.

ma-wano or ma-ano

pl.

ma-yayo or ma-ayo

pi.

ma-yébè or m-éèbe

The example in (87a) is a borrowing from Nyoro, where /p/ is realized as [h] unless preceded by a homorganic nasal, in which case one obtains [mp], As seen in the plural, the [h] is interpreted in Luganda either as [w], the normal reflex of /p/ in this context, or is deleted, since Luganda doesn't have [h]. We can thus dismiss this example. The noun j-jayo in (87b) shows a variation in its plural. However, the singular also exists equivalently as class 11 lw-aayo. Since some class 11 nouns have a plural in class 6, it is possible that ma-yayo is the plural of j-jayo, while ma-ayo is the plural of lw-aayo. This leaves only (87c) whose variation in the plural we cannot explain. What we can explain is why the class 5 allomorph li- is chosen with initial nouns rather than /'-: By choosing li- one obtains forms such as [lii.so] 'eye', [lyàà.to] 'canoe' etc. Had /- been chosen instead, such nouns would have been realized *[j.ji.sò], *[j.jàtò], etc. As seen, the choice is thus between a single CVV syllable vs. two syllables C.CV. In (30c) we proposed a constraint according to which a single CVV syllable is preferred over two CV syllables. If we interpret this constraint in terms of moras we discover that it also covers the current situation: A bimoraic syllable is preferred over two monomoraic syllables (other things being equal). Thus this class 5 allomorphy, rather than being a problem, provides additional support for the approach taken here.73

6. Summary

In the preceding sections we accomplished the following: first, we expanded the empirical base for the study of the syllable in Luganda. Second, we provided a characterization of Luganda syllabification within the context of the morphological structures that affect the phonology of the language. We saw that syllable-related phenomena may differ in their word-internal vs. wordexternal manifestations (e.g. the gliding vs. deletion of mid-vowels when followed by another vowel). We also saw that syllabification is edge-in and cyclic in Luganda. We also proposed that the sponsoring of moras by the stem (=stratum 1) be globally encoded in the output in order to handle a sticky problem involving unstable-^ and the assignment of M2 stem tone. Finally, we saw that the choice of the class 5 allomorph li- before unstable-^ roots is predicted

The syllable in Luganda

397

by our analysis. Despite the fact that we have shown Luganda syllabification to be considerably more intricate than Tucker (1962) and subsequent scholars have described it, we believe (or at least hope) that we have not detracted from the pleasing aesthetics that so inspired Tucker in the opening quotation.74

Appendix

In the above discussion we have had occasion to mention the role of geminate consonants (henceforth geminates) in Luganda syllabification. What is lacking from our study is a thorough study of gemination. In order to limit the length of our study we shall provide only a schematic statement concerning geminates, which, although usually functioning as vowels, do not always behave as expected. As we shall show, bimoraic VC¡ sequences behave slightly differently from either W or VN ones. But first, as an attempt to understand their behavior, it is constructive to consider the various sources of geminate consonants. As has been pointed out in the literature (Meeussen 1955, Tucker 1962, Clements 1986), a major source of geminates is from PB *jC sequences. Some geminates in Luganda can be argued to have the synchronic representation /jC/. In order to appreciate the full situation, we briefly list the seven sources of gemination in Luganda: (i) Tauto-morphemic geminates: e.g. ku-tippa 'to tie tightly', ku-kk-a 'to descend', n-tugga 'giraffe' etc. (ii) 'Ci prefixes' such as class 5, as we saw in (83), e.g. t-táma 'cheek', f-fúmu 'spear', as well as some class 9 nouns, including borrowings such as b-bàsì 'bus', s-saffààli 'safari'. (iii) Nasal prefix + root-initial nasal consonant, e.g. class 9 m-mésè 'rat(s)', nnákü 'trouble(s)' and first person singular subject and object prefixes on verbs, e.g. m-manyi Ί know', a-n-nenya 'he blames me'. (iv) Meinhof s rule, whereby a N-DVN sequence generally becomes N-NVN (where D = a non-strident oral voiced consonant), e.g. m-màànja Ί demand payment' (cf. ku-bàànj-a), a-n-nùmà 'he bites me' (cf. ku-lúma), n-nimì 'tongues' (cf. sg. lu-limï) (see Katamba & Hyman 1991). (v) Perfective allomorph -/'/- after a CV verb roots (e.g. a-gu-fl-e < a-gù-dd-è 'he has fallen') and fused or 'imbricated' allomorph -j- before polymoraic stems ending in IV, e.g. a-sasûl-j-e —» a-sasûjl-e —» a-sasûddè 'he has paid' (cf. a-sâlj-e —> a-sàz-è 'he has cut'). (vi) Optional infinitival ku- truncation (Katamba 1977), e.g. ku-pàkàs-a ~ ppàkàsa 'to work for hire', ku-bala ~ b-bala 'to count' etc.

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(vii) 'Prothetic gemination' (see below). In cases (i)-(vi), consonant gemination results from either the concatenation of like or near-like consonants or from the leftward spreading of a consonant onto an available vocalic mora (either from Proto-Bantu */' or from the deletion of the infinitive prefix ku-). The seventh and last source of gemination is quite different and problematic. However, before dealing with it, it will be necessary to consider the interaction of gemination with unstable-^. Compare the imperative and present tense paradigms of the two verbs 'sweep' and 'descend' in (88). a. b. c. d.

yer-a n-jer-a

'sweep!'

kk-a

'descend!'

Ί sweep'

n-zik-a

Ί descend'

o-yer-a a-yer-a tw-éèr-a mw-éèr-a b-éèr-a

'you sg. sweep' 's/he sweeps' 'we sweep 'you pi. sweep' 'they sweep'

o-kk-a a-kk-a tû-kk-a mû-kk-a bâ-kk-a

'you sg. descend' 's/he descends' 'we descend' 'you pi. descend' 'they descend'

In the case of-er- 'sweep' the unstable-^ surfaces in the imperative in (88a), after the first person singular prefix n- in (88b), and after the vocalic prefixes oand a- in (88c). Unstable-^ fails to surface after the CV prefixes tû-, mû- and bâ- in (87d). Now consider the -kk- 'descend'. In the right hand column we see that this verb surfaces with a geminate in all forms except after the nasal prefix in (88b). As mentioned, such verbs historically had the vowel */. Thus compare Luganda ku-kk-a with Rukiga kw-ika, both meaning 'to descend'. Now, we have pointed out that all vowel-initial roots have an unstable-^. What this means is that the underlying representation of root-initial Q Q should be -¡ C. The surfaces after n-, but not as [j], rather as [z], the expected 'fricated' reflex before *i.This latter vowel of course also surfaces as the [i] in n-zik-a Ί descend'. But why don't we obtain the form -zik- in the imperative (*zik-a) or after the vocalic prefixes o- and α-Ί It is clear that we have a parallel representation with -er-, but with a different output, as indicated in (89).

The syllable in Luganda

399

(89) Parallel representation of CiC¡ as /¡ C/, but with different output [k.ka] σ σ I1 1ι

a.

μ

"

Ί

j

b.

μ

[ak.ka] σ σ ιI II μμ

ι

k Λa

a-

σ

[η. zi.ka] σ σ ιι ιι

c.

ιι μ

/Ί

μ I

Λ

k a

y j

η-

y

σ ιι

μ

μ

Λ

Λ

i

k a

i *[a.yi.ka] (cf. [a.ye.ra])

*[yi.ka] (cf. [ye.ra])

j

(i.e. y becomes obstruent and strident:)

i ζ

As indicated, if the input of the imperative in (89a) were to follow the same principles as we invoked for [ye.ra] 'sweep!' in (50a), 'descend!' would incorrectly surface as *[yi.ka]. Similarly, the input in (89b) would incorrectly surface as *[a.yi.ka], In (89c), however, the unstable-^ does surface. In order to see why, let us first consider a possible serial solution in (90). (90) A serial solution a. a- er-a a-yer-a

b.

a- \t-a a-yit-a

c.

n- it-a n-yjt-a n-jjt-a n-z\t-a

a-it-a a-tt-a

UR Link C-hardening C-frication y-absorption Gemination

Each of the inputs show unstable-^ as . The first step in the derivation is to link unstable-}', since it is preceded by either a vowel or nasal prefix. This produces a-yer-a in (90a). In (90c) lyl hardens to [j] and then 'fricates' to [z] before l\l. This frication process applies to all lingual consonants in the language except /y/.75 It therefore does not apply in (90b). Instead [y] deletes before /j/ by an OCP-related process of absorption, formalized in (91a). (91) a.

μ y

b. i

μ,

μ2

i

[aF]

Finally, as schematized in (91b), /j / delinks from its mora μι and the following consonant is compensatorily lengthened (Clements 1986) by leftward

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Larry M. Hyman & Francis X. Katamba

spreading.76 Note, however, that μι must not be branching, as it is in (90c), or we would obtain something like *nzta or *ntta, depending on the ordering of hardening with respect to (91a) and (91b). What this means is that gemination will occur either after a vowel or after pause. Within a direct mapping approach such as the one we advocate, instead of the rules in (92), we would introduce the analogous constraints in (92). (92) a. Avoid b. Avoid

[yi]0 [i

The first says that one should avoid [yi] syllables. Since stable-^ may surface before [i], e.g. ku-yiimb-a 'to sing', this constraint is violable. The constraint in (92b), which prohibits bracket-initial [i], is however undominated, and counterevidenced only by a handful of exceptions (see note 11). Returning to the input of (89b) unstable-^ fails to link because of (92a) and / is delinked because of (92b). In fact, we can propose one amendment which may have value in explaining why Luganda has consonant gemination. Recall that the 'geminator' j, is an Iii that causes gemination or frication, depending on the context. Our proposal is that it is an Ν which is not pre-linked to its mora. Because of the constraints in (92), it will fail to link (and hence be stray-erased) if preceded by a vowel or null, but will otherwise be reassigned to a preceding consonant to cause frication. The reason why an empty mora is preferentially filled by the consonant to its right rather than by the vowel to its left is that right-to-left directionality takes precedence over left-to-right directionality in Luganda. In other words, we don't think the language prefers geminate consonants to long vowels, other things being equal. With this treatment of geminates, we are now ready to consider what we have termed 'prothetic gemination'. This concerns the development of [ggw] and [ggy] geminates from PB *-ρό- and *-ρί-. The two verbs in (93), originally cited in (13a,d), illustrate this phenomenon:

The syllable in Luganda

401

(93) a. Infinitives i.

ii.

kû-ggw-a

'to be exhausted'

kù-ggw-aa=kô '...a little'

kû-ggy-a kù-ggy-aa=kô

'to get burnt' '...a little'

b. Present tense (habitual) i.

ii.

n-zigwà

Ί am exhausted'

n-zigyà

Ί get burnt'

ó-ggwà

'you (sg.) are exhausted'

ó-ggyà

'you (sg.) get burnt'

à-ggwà

's/he is exhausted'

à-ggyà

'he/she gets burnt'

tù-ggwà

'we are exhausted'

tù-ggyà

'we get burnt'

mù-ggwà

'you (pl.) are exhausted'

mû-ggyà

'you (pi.) get burnt'

bà-ggyà

'they get burnt'

bà-ggwà

'they are exhausted'

c. Perfect tense m-pwêddè o-wêddè

Ί have become exhausted' 'you (sg.) have bee. exhausted

n-jîddè/m-pîddè o-yîddè

Ί have got burnt' 'you (sg.) have got burnt'

a-wêddè

's/he have bee. exhausted

a-yîddè

'he/she has got burnt'

tù-wèddè

tù-yìddè

mù-wèddè

'we have bee. exhausted' 'you (pi.) have bee. exhausted'

mu-yìddè

'we have got burnt' 'you have got burnt'

bà-wèddè

'they have bee. exhausted'

bà-yìddè

'they have got burnt'

As seen in the infinitives in (93a), the two verbs have a geminated [ggw] or [ggy]. The second line shows that the FV of these verbs is long, but undergoes FVS when not followed by an enclitic, here class 17 =kô 'a little'. The same geminates are found in the present tense in (93b), except when the subject is first person singular. From the first person singular subject forms in the perfect tense in (93 c), we can see evidence that the initial consonant was *p (although there is variation in (93c.ii.)). We also see from the vowel that precedes perfective -dde that 'become exhausted' has an underlying loi (cf. (13) and note 14), while 'get burnt' has an underlying I'll. As mentioned in note 40, when not preceded by [m], PB *p weakens to [w] in Luganda, which then assimilates to [y] before front vowels. In an abstract analysis we can thus can set up /-pi-/ and /-po-/. We now are ready to show in (94) how the geminates [ggw] and [ggy] arise in these forms: (94) a. /po-a/ b. /pi-a/

—> wo-a —> ww-aa -» wi-a —> yy-aa

—> ggwaa -> ggyaa

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First /p/ weakens to [w] or [y], as appropriate. Then loi and /i/ glide to [w] and [y], respectively, with compensatory lengthening of the FV. (Recall from (13) and (14) that mid-vowels glide before another vowel lexically.) As seen, this produces [ww] and [yy] sequences. The final step is for these to undergo hardening to [ggw] and [ggy].77 What is of concern in the derivation in (94) is that the input contains two moras, while the output contains three! That is, assuming that the [wwaa] and [yyaa] stage can be treated the same as other Cwaa and Cyaa bimoraic syllables, when [ww] and [yy] harden to [ggw] and [ggy], an additional mora has to be inserted to carry the first half of the geminate. For this reason, we view this mora as 'prothetic' and the resultant hardened consonants as 'prothetic gemination'. That the first half of the geminate is moraic is seen in the following derivatives of these verbs: (95) a. kw-é-ggw-èès-a b. kw-é-gg-ììr-a

'to exhaust oneself 'to be burnt for oneself

<
s, ζ; η —>ji). When realized as [i] it is otherwise non-distinguishable from instances of /i/ which do not have these effects. In a moraic framework what this means is that you cannot begin a syllable with a nonbranching mora. This also rules out a syllable consisting of a syllabic nasal. As in the case of V syllables, a syllabic nasal syllable is only tolerated after pause in Luganda. As we discuss in section 5.1, vowels are otherwise automatically long before NC. There is considerable confusion in the literature on this subject. Cole (1967: 5), for instance, speaks of word-initial vowels: "In word-initial position (except when preceding geminate consonant clusters) vowels appear always to be phonetically longer than medial single vowels. We tentatively assume therefore that, except when preceding CC, all word-initial vowels are phonemically double ( W ) . " Tucker (1967: xvi), on the other hand, seems to imply that such vowels are short, but that initial vowels followed by a NC cluster are long. It is clear from our investigations that the initial vowels in both (44a) and (44b) have two distinguishable realizations: one where the vowel is relatively short (in fact, sounds exactly like a short vowel to us) vs. one where the vowel is quite long (i.e. having the length of a C W syllable). It is also occasionally claimed that forms such as the following are distinct for some speakers (cf. Stevick 1969):

The syllable in Luganda

(i) /a-lâb-a/ -> [a.là.bà] (ii) /a-lâb-â/ —> [aa.là.bà]

29. 30. 31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

'he sees' 'he who sees'

407

( < /a-a-lâb-â/?)

In our own investigations with several informants we have found both of the underlying forms in (i) and (ii) to vary between the two outputs. That is, either can be [a-là.bà] or [aa.là.bà]. Note that -â FVs are regular and dealt with in section 5.1. The portion in parentheses is discounted. The mora count starts with the first tone bearing unit not in parentheses; 1 = first mora; 2 = second mora. In the case of CVVCV stems, the HL tonicity is assigned to the second V of the CVV syllable. By the general contour simplification processes, the entire CVV becomes H and the drop to L occurs on the following syllable, as indicated. Snoxall (1967: 269) lists the single potential counterexample ku-ôtt-a 'make off, go away', adding, however, that the verb is 'usually' ku-yôtt-a (which alone is acceptable to the second author). The only other apparent counterexample in the Snoxall dictionary is ku-aNNang-a 'to approach, accost'. However in this case the root is underlyingly /-angang-/. The geminate velar nasal will be derived by a rule known as either Meinh o f s Rule or the Ganda Law (Meeussen 1962, Herbert 1977, Schadeberg 1987, Katamba & Hyman 1991). In Luganda this rule converts sequences of NDVN to NNVN in the relevant domain (where D = a non-strident voiced consonant). Underlyingly the root in question thus begins with initial +VNC, not +VNN. For many speakers, the vowel of this tense prefix may harmonize with the vowel of the pronominal prefix that precedes it where that vowel is mid, resulting in e-néé-láb-a 'it will see' (cf. ο-ηάά-láb-a = ο-ηόό-láb-a 'you will see'). This interpretation also explains why the augment (or initial vowel) in the relative form is pronounced [e]: [e.ya.là.bà] 'he/she who saw'. Where (37a) does not apply, class 1 surfaces as [a]. If an augment is posited in relative forms such as /a-a-Iâb-â/ —> [a-láb-á] 'he/she who sees', it too must remain as /a-/ (cf. /a-sib-a/ -> [a.sib.a] 'he/she ties' vs. /a-a-sib-â/ —> [a.si.bâ] 'he/she who ties', where the main and relative forms differ in tone because the root -sib- is underlyingly toneless). Given the complexity of the realization of the augment in Luganda (see Hyman & Katamba 1993b), it would however also be possible to say that there is a 0 spell-out in this case. There are, however, other possible interpretations of this fact. First, as we have already indicated, the only vowels that appear after a left morphological bracket in Luganda are [e o a], i.e. [-high]. For this reason, it would be possible to represent the class 9 SM as /i-/, which would in fact glide before /e/, but which would lower to [e] in case it didn't glide. To get gliding only before unlike vowels, it would be necessary, however, to keep the representation of the reflexive as -eê- and the copula in (39b) as -e even though these too could be represented as -it- and -/- (with predictable lowering). Or, we could keep /e/ and let it glide by the same lexical rule that we observed in (14b). That the applicative of a verb such as -kê- 'dawn' is -ke-er-, i.e. without gliding, is no problem. In this case the vowel of -kê- is underlyingly [-high], since it contrasts with ίϋ, but the non-contrastive height of the applicative vowel is underlyingly underspecified (and acquires its [-high] by spreading from -kê-). In our view, gliding is not obtained here because it is not needed: a CVV syllable is acceptable in Luganda. An alternative would be to propose that /e-/ and /o-/ are underlyingly non-moraic /i/ and /u/, but acquire a mora when followed by a consonant. This solution, equivalent to the proposal offered in Hyman (1985), will not be pursued here. We assume that the underlying length of a vowel-initial morpheme manifests itself directly on the surface after e- or o-. This criterion establishes two morphemes as un-

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ambiguously short (past tense -a- and copular -e) and the following as unambiguously long: genitive -aa, subject cleft -ee, reflexive -eê-, WH-yet tense -âa-, just finished past -aaka-, and -aalcu-, an archaic variant of conditional -andi-, whose length cannot be determined because of the NC sequence, which independently conditions CL (see sec. 5.1). Note that the class 1 prefix is the regular o- concord in this case. The rule of referral in (37a) only replaces the verbal prefix a- with e-. The underlying representations given to the right dramatically confirm that syllabification must proceed cyclically, applying first within words, then across. The last example appears to have seven vowels in a row which, however, must be independently syllabified in the three forms /m-bûa/, /e-ee=/ and /e-â-gu-â/. The requirement that constituents should start with a CV syllable is by no means universal. This is an area where cross-linguistic variation can be observed. Only three verbs have been found that have the shape -yVC¡C¡: -yîgg- 'hunt', -yagg'lament' and -yôtt- 'make o f f . Concerning the frequency of the sequence [yi], it should be noted that when not preceded by a nasal, Proto-Bantu *p weakens to [w], which then is fronted to [y] before Iii. This creates present alternations such as ku-yit-à 'to pass' vs. m-plt-à Ί pass' (cf. Proto-Bantu *-píl-). Cf. Cole (1967:119): "In summary, the yV allomorphs occur when there is no prefix, and after all prefixes other than those whose canonical form is CV, i.e. those consisting of Ν, V, VV, C W . " Borowsky (1983b) and Clements (1986) also deal with some of the issues discussed here. Recall from (34) that the FV of the first stem is long in the second, third and fourth examples in (45e) because it is preceded by exactly one mora. The form tû-er-aa-yer-a thus shows that this length must be calculated before the SM tû- is prefixed or else two moras will precede the FV. While the second stem in reduplication invariably begins with [y], the forms in (45e) show that the y vs. 0 realization of the first stem remains sensitive to the nature of the preceding prefix. Or, put slightly differently, vowel-initial roots may not begin with a long vowel or a vowel + geminate, although they may begin with VNC. We have allowed this by saying that the mora bearing nasal is consonantal and, hence, may be syllabified without violating the constraint against VV syllables. Since we do not have roots beginning -VC¡C¡, the first half of the geminate functions as a vowel. Discussion of this is presented in the Appendix. Our survey of verb roots in Snoxall (1967) reveals the following statistics: -yaCV... -yeCV.... -yiCV.... -yoCV... -yuCV...

46.

47.

3 4 22 2 4

-yaaCV... -yeeCV... -yiiCV... -yooCV... -yuuCV...

1 2 8 3 5

-yaNC... 4 -yeNC... 5 -yiNC... 11 -yoNC... 7 -yuNC... 3

-yaCCV... -yeCCV... -yiCCV... -yoCCV... -yuCCV...

1 0 1 1 0

-aCV... 48 -eCV... 4

-aNCV... 12 -eNCV... 7

-oCV... 12

-oNCV... 2

Apart from the many instances of 'unstable-/ before /a/, the statistics also show a preponderance of 'stable-/ before Iii that suggests that the missing 'unstable-/ before I'll is (for whatever reason) stable. The name of the country ' Uganda ' looks like a counter-example. But it is not because it is pronounced [yúgáándá], with an initial glide. See the Appendix, however, for the analysis of geminates, where initial superclosed l\l is proposed. The lack of compensatory lengthening here should be noted. It is normal (cf. 38b) and (39b). Where the gliding vowel is in syllable-initial position there is no compensatory

The syllable in Luganda

48.

49. 50.

51.

52.

53.

54. 55

56.

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lengthening. Cf. /tû-â-lâba/ [twààlàbà] 'we saw' vs. /o-â-lâba/ [wàlàbà] 'you (sg.) saw'. (SeeHyman 1985: 81-83, Clements 1986). Interestingly, close by Haya, which is otherwise virtually identical to Luganda in its unstable-^ properties, does provide a [y] before the reflexive, e.g. tu-eê-lêet-â [twee.léé.ta] 'we bring ourselves' vs. o-eê-lêet-â [o.yee.léé.ta] 'you bring yourself. No other prefix acquires a [y] in this way in Haya. There are at least two ways one could account for this difference. One is to recognize a domain difference, e.g. if [y] depends on stem-initial position in both languages, the reflexive may belong to the stem in Haya, but not in Luganda. Or, perhaps the [y] depends on stem-initial position in Luganda (which would exclude the reflexive) but on macro-stem-position in Haya (which would include the reflexive). Alternatively, one could just give a different underlying representation to the reflexive in Haya vs. Luganda (e.g. initial lyl vs. 0 ) . Other languages show considerably different variations, e.g. Olutsootsoo (Dalgish 1974), Kikerewe (Odden 1995), etc. Note that if they applied simultaneously, one would also obtain an incorrect output, •[e.ye.ra]. This last point naturally raises the question of whether the y / 0 alternation should be seen as phonological or morphological. As we discuss below, it would be possible to make the alternation one of allomorphy by entering each vowel-initial root with a y-initial allomorph in the lexicon. In this case the conflict in (49) would be over which allomorph takes precedence over the other. In a moraic framework what this means is that one can't begin a syllable with a nonbranching mora. As seen in (52b), this also rules out a syllable consisting of a syllabic nasal. As in the case of V syllables, a syllabic nasal syllable is only tolerated after pause in Luganda. Note that reflexive -eê-, like other OM's other than the lsg. OM «-, requires the FV -e in the imperative. Unlike the other OM's, however, it also requires a 2 pers. SM: /o-eêer-ê/ -> [wee.ye.rê] '(you) sweep yourself!'. As we can tell from forms such as nn-a-làb-à Ί saw', for those speakers who geminate the first person morpheme, the 1st person sg. prefix is underlyingly a moraic /n-/ which will be realized as an alveolar before a vocalic prefix. (For other speakers, this morpheme is realized by a non-geminate, non-moraic /η-/ η-a-lab-a). We need, therefore, to add to the output in (52b) that we do not obtain *n-nera (or *nera in parallel to nalaba) because parsing of the underlying extrametrical is preferred to creating an onset from gemination. See Bagemihl ( 1991 ) for the notion of moraic licensing. Cf. Tucker (1967: xvii): "Finally, it is important, in reading the examples in the text, to remember that the final vowel of a word is always assimilated by the initial vowel of the following word, which is then pronounced long." Even in this case it is not clear why a post-pausal vowel must be considered a syllable in Luganda. Starting with Hyman (1985) there have been various proposals to recognize syllabicity without having to build a syllable (cf. Bagemihl 1991, Hyman 1985, 1990, Mutaka & Hyman 1990, Downing 1993, 1994). The one awkwardness of this move is that the length observed in reduplications such as tû-er-aa - yer-a 'we sweep hear and there' is presumably syllable-related: A perfect iamb [μ μμ] is required if it exactly coincides with the stem. But what does it mean to be a [μ μμ] iamb if not a foot consisting of a light followed by heavy syllable? Finally, in at least one other language, Kinande, an initial vowel must be a syllable. Contrasting with the bare verb stem tum-à 'send!', which is the normal realization of the imperative, is the presence of the 2nd sg. subject prefix u- whenever the verb stem would otherwise be monosyllabic: u-sw-à 'grind!'

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Mutaka & Hyman (1990) show that the initial vowels of verb roots such as -oh- 'pick' and -es- 'play' do not constitute syllables at the stem level. However, their imperatives are oh-à and es-à, not *w-oh-à and *w-es-à (where the 2nd sg. prefix «-, if present, would have glided to [w]). We must conclude from this example at least that an initial vowel counts as a syllable in meeting the bisyllabic minimality of verbs. Disallowing past tense *twéèrà also has the desirable effect of avoiding homophony with the present tense form twéèrà 'we sweep'. Besides the allomorphy account of the irregularity of te- we have assumed, one could consider one or another morpheme-specific rule that would apply only to the negative prefix: a. te- -> t- / V b. t- - > t e - / C Another possibility is to set up this morpheme with the representation /te/, but without any underlying mora. When followed by a consonant, a mora is inserted to parse the CV sequence. When followed by a vowel, the /t/ joins its mora and the /e/ is strayerased. Treating similar data in Swahili, Stump (1992) proposes that si- is in the pre-SM negative slot, while Stump (1993) presents a reanalysis with si- occupying two slots. Recall that a geminate consonant has the structure VC, ultimately /jC/, as discussed in the appendix. Other alternatives such as forming more than one syllable out of the préfixai sequence are blocked by Luganda's lack of C-epenthesis to provide the required onset(s), perhaps also by its preference to minimize structure. One issue not addressed is what to do about a CV # V sequence that come together in the absence of an intervening pause. Recall from the examples in (3b) and (4c) that onsetless moras coalesce into a single bimoraic syllable also across word boundaries, e.g. /o-mu-limi + o-mû/-» [o.mu.li.myoo.mûl 'one farmer'. In an example such as this one, we choose not to assign both the final CV mora /mi/ of the first word and the initial V mora /o-/ of the second word to separate syllables. Otherwise, it would be necessary to undo some of the syllable structure created at an earlier stage of the derivation. An additional constraint would seem to be needed if we insist on keeping all syllabification as structure-building rather than structure-changing. One possibility is to block the formation of a V syllable at the left edge of a word. In this case, we would not invoke strayerasure but rather we would wait to see if this V joins a preceding CV syllable - or, if occurring instead after pause, forms its own syllable. When the nasal is itself geminate, it behaves exactly as other geminates - e.g. requiring that the preceding vowel be phonetically short. Thus, tû-eê-mm-a ~> [twém.mà] 'we begrudge ourselves'. We know that the nasal is underlyingly alveolar, since it surfaces as such when followed by a vocalic prefix, e.g. n-eê-lâb-a [n.néé.là.ba] Ί see myself. The fact that it surfaces as geminate before a vowel is due to its moraicity (cf. Hyman 1985). We will indicate the moraic nasal as /n/ in all positions, aware however that if coronality is underspecified, this is equivalent to an archiphone /N/. What this automatically implies is that RVS must precede tone rules that need to refer to the second mora of the underlying CVNC sequence. It also is the case that the first half of a geminate is a TBU in the lexical phonology. As will be shown in section 5.3, this follows from our proposal to treat it as an underlying vowel (cf. Clements' VC analysis) which is converted to a consonant postlexically. As discussed in Hyman (1992), this account is preferable to two alternative explanations: (i) that moras are simply counted differently for tone than for quantity, i.e. that there are two different moraic 'projections'; (ii) that initial VN starts out as bimoraic

The syllable in Luganda

67.

68.

69.

70.

411

(e.g. for the purposes of verb stem reduplication), but then undergoes a mora deletion process to become monomoraic. The alternative assumption that unstable-^ belongs to the prefix rather than the root will not be entertained. Given the structure of Luganda, it is much more plausible to assume that an unstable-_y is part of the root rather than the prefix. Roots and affixes of various kinds are each restricted to a few canonical phonological shapes. For instance, the canonical shape of verb roots in Luganda, and in Bantu in general, is -CV(V)C- (e.g., -gul- 'buy', -suubir- 'hope'). Some longer verb roots with frozen suffixes e.g. -wûlir'hear' are also attested. (There is no related verb *-wûl- from which -wûlir- is derived.) As we noted earlier, -VC- roots are also relatively rare and when they occur after a CVprefix, they always start with /y/ and thus conform to the -CVC- canonical shape of verbs. The only exception to the requirement that a verb root must minimally contain -CVC-, perhaps followed by a frozen (extension) suffix, is constituted by the 18 -CVverb roots listed in (13). No less important is the fact that prefixes with the shape CVCare not found elsewhere in the language. For subject pronouns, for example, the only possibilities are CV-, Ν-, (N) and V-. Nowhere else is a CVC- subject prefix similar to the putative *tuy- found. It would be an odd coincidence if the only such prefixes that existed happened to be just those that had the unstable-}». A relevant comparison with nouns concerns the H of a final HL on nouns with bisyllabic stems such as ki-sikt 'log', which is retracted when the augment or initial vowel morpheme is added, hence e-ki-siki. The generalization is that this H falls on the third TBU (=mora) of the noun form in both augmented and non-augmented forms. Now consider a noun such as n-vubû 'hippopotamus', which differs from ki-sikî only in that its prefix is the class 9 nasal rather than class 7 ki-. When these nouns are augmented, an initial V-N- sequence is obtained - and the H is not retracted, hence e-n-vubû. This is because the initial VN sequence, although bimoraic, constitutes a single TBU, as in (77b). Similarly, consider a noun such as li-envû [lyee.nvû] 'banana' whose stem begins with VN and has a final HL. If the underlying stem /-envû/ counted the nasal as a TBU, the third mora of the noun would be the nasal, and the augmentless form would be pronounced *[lyéé.nvù] (simplified from lyeê.nvu). Similarly, the third mora of the augmented form would be vowel /e/, and we should obtain *[e.lyéè.nvù]. Here too, then, the nasal of an initial VNC sequence must not count as a TBU. Odden (1993) discusses other possible cases of cross-stratal reference. However, the model he presents favors complex derivations with apparently any kind of cross-referencing of components and domains. We favor a model that would minimize derivationality, though allowing in at some price the kind of stratal interference we document in this study. Care must be taken to work in the kinds of alternations mentioned in note 67, whereby the H is subsequently retracted one mora to the left. This happens also in verbs, e.g. agul-â 'he who buys' -> a-bi-gùl-à 'he who buys them'. Hyman & Katamba (1993a) assume extrametricality of the initial toneless syllable, in which case the H is still on the second TBU of the form. This phenomenon might raise the possibility of another analysis where one starts with V-initial stems, assigns H to their second TBU, and then adjusts this H if and when the unstable-}' is realized at stratum 2, i.e. anj-â —> yaânj-a. There are two reasons to reject this analysis. First, it is not in fact related to the 'third mora phenomenon' illustrated by a-bi-gùl-à. This latter is possible only when all prefixes preceding the verb stem are toneless. Thus, compare a-bà-giil-â 'they who buy' and a-bá-bí-gúl-á 'they who buy them' (from a-bâ-gul-â and a-bâ-bi-gul-â with H tone plateauing), where the HL remains on the FV. In the case of an input form such as bi-e â-anj-a 'the ones he spreads out', realized [byá.yáá.njá], the HL must be assigned

412

71. 72.

73.

74.

75. 76.

77.

Larry M Hyman & Francis X. Katamba to the nasal, -yañ j-a. Now if this began as -anjâ, the retraction would have to take place despite the fact that the prefix â- is tonic. So this is would have to be a unique, hence ad hoc, process of tone retraction conditioned by the introduction of the onset [y]. The second argument against it is that it is not needed: Our input-output analysis produces the same results without having to have an intermediate representation with the HL assigned to the wrong mora. As pointed out by Cole (1967: 31), this noun, from Swahili chupa, typically takes class 9 concord rather than class 5. Meeussen (1967) reconstructs the augment as *dl- and suggests that the augmented prefix for class 5 was therefore *di-j- However, class 5 nouns all take the augment e-, hence e-p-péèsa 'button', e-ly-ààto 'canoe'. It is hard to see how this latter form could derive from *di-j-jàtò, where *j is the source of the unstable-}' of our study. Our suggestion is that both *j-deletion and class 5 allomorphy are archaic, *di- being used before V-initial roots, /- before C-initial roots. We of course have not explained - and cannot explain - why j (rather than ft) is used with C-initial stems. This seems to be a historical fact, although we believe that even the diachronic situation is far from clear. Synchronically, there are at least two reasons why a ft- syllable should be preferred to a C¡- (i.e. geminate) one: (i) As we have argued, geminates are vocalic. Hence, an initial C¡C, sequence begins with an onsetless syllable, (ii) Geminates are themselves more 'marked' than non-geminates. As shown in the Appendix, however, Luganda has a great affinity toward gemination. One last comment: In some of our presentations of this work we have approached Luganda syllabification as an exercise in how to avoid structure-changing rules (or input-output relations). Whether this is important depends of course on one's theoretical outlook. In the present account, we have attempted to present the syllabification of moras as strictly structure-building. That is, we have had no reason to delink any moras from syllable nodes. In order for this to hold throughout the language, since moras join into a syllable across words, we would have to avoid assigning both a word-final mora and a word-initial vowel or first-half-of-geminate to their own syllables. We also would have to redo gliding and some of the other processes so that instead of being prelinked to their moras, they would be co-indexed with those moras with which they are affiliated. Finally, we have not gone into the consequences that would arise if, as suggested to us by Harry van der Hulst (personal communication), we were to have only moras and no syllables, as in Hyman (1985), or, as he suggested, only syllables and no moras. That is, Λ c k/ -> [s] and /d 1 j g/ -> [z], /n/ 'fricates' to |ji] (cf. note 25). We assume that all consonants in Luganda are [+cons]. This includes both stable- and unstable-}*, although Paul Kiparsky (personal communication) suggested to us the possibility that one of them, presumably unstable-}', might be identified as [-cons] as a way of distinguishing the two, as has been proposed for French to account for differences such as in l'hiérarchie vs. le yoga. Alternatively, unstable-}' could be underspecified for [cons], explaining why it doesn't automatically link as an onset, and why syllabification therefore may occur across it. This seems equivalent to the proposal briefly considered in section 4.1 that unstable-}« lacks a root node, which we rejected primarily because it did not give us the left-edge property that extrametricality provides. Hardening to [ggw] is completely regular. Thus compare class 5 g-gwààgi 'centerpost of house' with its class 6 plural ma-wààgi. However, as seen in (85), /y/ typically geminates to Qj], e.g. class 5 j-jibâ 'dove', class 6 pl. ma-yibâ. Diachronically we suspect that *p> h first (as it does in neighboring languages such as Runyankore and Rukiga), possibly [x], which could have voiced to [γ]. This then would have produced the intermediate forms -ywaa and -yyaa. Now if these were to geminate and harden, -ggwaa

The syllable in Luganda

413

and -ggyaa would automatically result. In the absence of gemination, [γ] is lost. Synchronically what we have to say is that [y] from /p/ geminates as [ggy], while [y] from lyl geminates as [jj]. Other examples of the former is the adjectival stem -ggyâ 'new' from PB *-pla (cf. class 9/10 realization as m-pyä) and the class 11 noun lù-ggyâ 'courtyard', class 10 pl. 'm-pyâ. Perhaps this is a good place to invoke Kiparsky's suggestion that Luganda might have both a [+cons] and a [-cons] [y] (cf. note 73). Finally, we should perhaps note that there is some confusion in Luganda, a language with velar fronting (and dialectal affncation), between [g] and [j], particularly before high front vowels. Thus Snoxall (1967) gives gg/jj variants for the following class 5 nouns: ggindù/j-jindù 'spur of fowl', g-ginirizi/j-jinirizi 'hair along spine on back of animals', ggirì/j-jirì 'mat with spiral pattern', g-girikiti/j-jirikiti 'Red-shot Poker Tree, Uganda Coral'. The last noun has the plural ma-yirikiti. Other nouns that are entered solely with initial [gg] in class 5 also have ay-initial class 6, e.g. g-giririzi 'a skin disease', pi. mayiririzi. This is clearly an area for further lexicographic research.

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Guthrie, M. 1967-71 Comparative Bantu, vols. I-IV. Hants: Gregg International Publishers. Halle, M. & J.-R. Vergnaud 1980 Three-dimensional phonology. Journal of linguistic research 1, 83-105. Hayes, B P. 1982 Extrametricality and English stress. Linguistic inquiry 13, 227-276. 1989 Compensatory lengthening in moraic theory. Linguistic inquiry 20, 253-306. Heny, F. & D. Wheeler 1982 A categorial analysis of Luganda tone. Ms. Herbert, R.K. 1976 A reanalysis of Luganda vowels. Afrika und Übersee 59, 113-124. 1977 The non-dissimilatory nature of nasal compound dissimilation in Bantu. In P.F.A. Kotey & H. Der-Houssikian (eds.), Language and linguistic problems in Africa. Columbia, S.C.: Hornbeam Press, 395-411. Hubbard, K.A. 1994 Duration in moraic theory. PhD dissertation. U.C. Berkeley. 1995 'Prenasalized consonants' and syllable-timing: evidence from Runyambo and Luganda. Phonology 12, 235-256. Hyman, L.M. 1985 A theory of phonological weight. Dordrecht: Foris. 1990 Non-exhaustive syllabification: evidence from Nigeria and Cameroon. In Papers from the parasession on the syllable in phonetics and phonology. Chicago linguistic society 26, 175-195. 1992 Moraic mismatches in Bantu. Phonology 9, 255-265 Hyman, L.M. & F.X. Katamba 1990 Final vowel shortening in Luganda. Studies in African linguistics 21, 1-59. 1993a A new approach to tone in Luganda. Language 69, 34-67. 1993b The augment in Luganda: syntax or pragmatics? In S. Mchombo (ed.), Theoretical aspects of Bantu grammar. Stanford: C.S.L.I., 209-256. Inkelas, S. 1989 Prosodie constituency in the lexicon. PhD dissertation. Stanford University. (Published by Garland Press, New York, 1990). Itô, J. 1989 A prosodie theory of epenthesis. Natural language and linguistic theory 7, 217260.

Katamba, F.X. 1974 Aspects of the grammar of Luganda. PhD Dissertation. University of Edinburgh. 1977 On meta-rules in phonology. Studies in African linguistics 8, 33-47. 1980 On inroads of semantics into phonology. Work in progress 12. Department of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh. 1984 A nonlinear analysis of vowel harmony in Luganda. Journal of linguistics 20, 5776. 1985 A nonlinear account of the syllable in Lunganda. In D.L. Goyvaerts (ed.), African linguistics. Studies in the sciences of language series. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 267-283. Katamba, F.X. & L.M. Hyman 1991 Nasality and morpheme structure constraints in Luganda. Africanistische Arbeitspapiere 25. Institut fur Afrikanistik. Universität zu Köln, 175-211.

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Kenstowicz, M. & M. Kidda 1987 The obligatory contour principle and Tangale phonology. In D. Odden (ed.), Current approaches to African linguistics (vol. 4). Dordrecht: Foris, 223-238. Kiparsky, P. 1982 Lexical morphology and phonology. In I.-S. Yang (ed.), Linguistics in the Morning Calm. Seoul: Hanshin, 3-91. Macken, M. 1990 Prosodie edge-in association. NELS 20, 363-377. Maddieson, I. & P. Ladefoged 1993 Phonetics of partially nasal consonants. Phonetics and phonology 5, 251-301. McCarthy, J.J. & A.S. Prince 1986 Prosodie morphology. Ms. University of Massachusetts, Amherst & Brandeis University. 1993 Generalized alignment. In G.E. Booij & J. van Marie (eds.), Yearbook of morphology. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 79-153. 1994 The emergence of the unmarked: optimality in prosodie morphology. Proceedings of the Northeastern linguistic society 24, 333-379. Meeussen, A.E. 1955 Les phonèmes du Ganda et du Bantou Commun. Africa 25, 170-180. 1959 Essai de grammaire rundi. Tervuren: Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale. 1962 Meinhof s rule in Bantu. African language studies 3, 25-30. 1967 Bantu grammatical reconstructions. Annalen van het koninklijk museum voor Midden-Afrika 61, 79-121. 1980 [1969], Bantu lexical reconstructions. Tervuren: Koninklijk museum voor MiddenAfrika. Mutaka, Ng. & L.M. Hyman 1990 Syllables and morpheme integrity in Kinande reduplication. Phonology 7, 73119. Myers, S. 1991 Persistent rules. Linguistic inquiry 22, 315-344. Odden, D. 1993 Interaction between modules in lexical phonology. In S. Hargus & E. Kaisse (eds.), Studies in lexical phonology. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press, 111-144. 1995 The status of onsetless syllables in Kikerewe. Ohio State working papers in linguistics 47, 89-110. Orgun, O. 1996 Phonology-morphology interaction in sign-based morphology. PhD dissertation. Berkeley: University of California. Paradis, C. & D. LaCharité 1993 Introduction. Canadian journal of linguistics 38, 127-54. Peterson, D. 1993 Against INFL-VERB compounding in Luganda. Paper presented at the 24th A.C.A.L., Ohio State University, July 23-25, 1993. Prince, A.S. & P. Smolensky 1993 Optimality theory: constraint interaction in generative grammar. Ms. Rutgers University & University of Colorado. Schadeberg, T. 1987 Silbenanlautgesetze im Bantu. Afrika und Übersee 70, 1-17. Snoxall, R A. 1967 Luganda-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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Stevick, E.W. 1969 Pitch and duration in Ganda. Journal of African languages 8, 1-28. Stump, G.T. 1992 On the theoretical status of position class restrictions on inflectional affixes. In G.E. Booij & J. van Marie (eds.), Yearbook of morphology. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 211-241. 1993a Position classes and morphological theory. In G.E. Booij & J. van Marie (eds.), Yearbook of morphology. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 129-180. 1993b On rules of referral. Language 69, 449-479. Tucker, A.N. 1962 The syllable in Luganda: a prosodie approach. Journal of African languages 1, 122-166.

1967 Introduction to Snoxall (1967). Wiltshire, C. 1992 Syllabification and rule application in harmonic phonology. PhD dissertation. University of Chicago. Yip, M. 1988 Template morphology and the direction of association. Natural language and linguistic theory 6, 551-577. Zee, D. 1988 Sonority constraints on prosodie structure. PhD Dissertation. Stanford University. Zoll, C. 1993 Ghost segments and optimality. WCCFL 12, 183-199. 1996 Parsing below the segment in a constraint-based framework. PhD dissertation. Berkeley: University of California. Zwicky, A.M. 1987 French prepositions: no peeking. Phonology yearbook 4, 211-227.

13 Kihehe syllable structure David Odden & Mary Odden

1. Introduction*

This chapter discusses a number of general issues in the phonology of Kihehe, which is a Bantu language spoken in southwestern Tanzania, focusing on aspects of the language which relate to the structure of the syllable. After an overview of the basic syllable typology of the language, we move to two areas involving syllable readjustment and compensatory lengthening: the resolution of vocalic hiatus in section 2, and lengthening of vowels before NC sequences in section 3. The question of the underlying length of stem-initial vowels is taken up in section 4, and a restriction against word-final long vowels is investigated in section 5. Section 6 shows how gemination of nasals is sensitive to tone, and the final section investigates the phonetic and phonological properties of two kinds of syllabic nasals in the language. One of the conclusions to be drawn in this study is that while there is evidence in Kihehe for certain subsyllabic constituents such as the mora and the onset, there is no evidence for the syllable itself as a phonological constituent. As a Bantu language, there is a considerable degree of similarity between the syllabic phonology of Kihehe and that of related languages such as Luganda (Hyman & Katamba, this volume) or Kimatuumbi (Odden 1996). We begin with the basic typological question of what kinds of syllables are allowed in Kihehe. Syllables in this language can be partitioned into two sets. The most general type is the basic CV syllable, composed of an optional onset which may be any consonant of the language and a single vowel, illustrated in (1). The vowel of the syllable may be any one of the 5 vowels /i e a o u/, which may be short or long.

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Basic syllable types: (Ons) + Nue = (N)(C)(G)V(V) V: a-teléka 'he will cook' VV: ií-ta 'he will spill' 'we will cook' CV: tu-teléka CW: vií-ta 'they will spill' nzí-ta Ί will spill' NCV: Ί will cook' NCVV: ndii-teléka 'heads' CGV: mí-twe CGVV: myeé-zi 'months' 'chain' NCGV: lufuú-mbwi N C G W : ii-mbwaa-gwá 'it will be repeatedly

On the surface, syllables usually have onsets, and a fair amount of Kihehe phonology concerns itself with guaranteeing that syllables do have onsets, in light of the fact that the morphology allows the concatenation of multiple vowels which would otherwise lead to many onsetless syllables. The only contexts within the word where an onsetless syllable is allowed are at the very beginning of the word, and in certain reduplicated forms such as ititeiitite 'he spilled all over the place'. The syllable onset may contain as many as three consonants. In the maximal syllable onset, the first consonant is a nasal, which is always homorganic with the following consonant. The second consonant in the onset forms the core segment of the onset, and may be any consonant of the language, though there are segmental co-occurrence constraints holding between this core consonant and either the preceding nasal or a following optional glide. Thus the core C of the syllable cannot be a nasal if C is preceded by a nasal, so *nm is not a possible onset, and the core C cannot be a glide if a glide follows, thus *yw is also not a possible onset. There are also more specific constraints on the segmental content of consonant sequences in the onset, so that a nasal cannot be followed by I (*nl) or a voiceless consonant (*nt, *ns). The second type of syllable in Kihehe is one composed of just a syllabic nasal, as in (2). (2)

Nasal syllable [rj.go.da] [ή.de.la] [m.bwa] [q.qo.ño] (Subtype: m.twaángo

'sticks' (orthographic ñgoda) 'roots' 'dog' 'maggots' (orthographic ñng'onyo) 'pestle')

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419

Unlike the more general CV syllable, the nasal syllable has an extremely restricted distribution. This nasal is always followed by a consonant in the next syllable, and it shares place of articulation with that consonant. It surfaces only at the beginning of a phrase, is always H toned, and never has an onset consonant. There is a phonetic variant of this surface syllable type, composed of a surface syllabic m as exemplified in the word m'twaángo, which is quite different from the more general syllabic nasal. This nasal syllable has a much less restricted distribution, interacts with other segments in a very different way from the general syllabic nasal, and is phonetically distinct from the regular syllabic nasal. We will discuss these two minor syllable types in greater detail later in this paper.

2. Vowel-vowel sequences

In this section, we investigate how sequences of vowels that arise in underlying representations are eliminated on the surface. As we have noted, syllables generally have onsets in surface representations. However, a number of morphemes in the language underlyingly begin with a vowel, so underlying vowel-plusvowel sequences can easily be constructed by morpheme concatenation. Such sequences are resolved in various ways. Glide formation is one common way to eliminate vocalic sequences. Some examples of glide formation are shown in (3), which illustrates different surface forms of the infinitive prefix. When placed before a stem that begins with any non-syllabic segment, the infinitive prefix has the shape ku, but before a vowel-initial stem, it is realized as kw. (3)

kú-fuga kú-gohomóla kú-haáta kw-áala kw-éenda kw-iita

'to 'to 'to 'to 'to 'to

keep animals in house' cough' be fermenting' open palms' love' pour'

Similarly, as (4) shows, the class 5 subject prefix li- shows up as li- before a consonant-initial stem, but before a vowel-initial stem, li- becomes ly-. The class 9 prefix is realized as the vowel i- before a consonant-initial stem, but as the glide y- before a vowel-initial stem.

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li-telekwá ly-oogópa ly-eeheéla ly-aáka i-lúma y-oogópa y-uúsa y-aáka

'it 'it 'it 'it 'it 'it 'it 'it

(cl. (cl. (cl. (cl. (cl. (cl. (cl. (cl.

5) will be cooked' 5) will fear' 5) will breath' 5) will burn' 9) will bite' 9) will fear' 9) will come' 9) will burn'

It should be noticed that, in all of the above examples, the initial stem vowel is long on the surface where there is an underlying vowel-plus-vowel sequence. There is no contrast in Kihehe between stem-initial long vowels and stem-initial short vowels, so we will assume that all vowels that appear at the beginning of the stem are uniformly the same length. At this point, we have not considered any evidence that argues whether these vowels are underlyingly short, but we will later show that underlyingly stem-initial vowels appear as short when they are not preceded by a prefix vowel, which gives a clue as to the underlying length of such vowels. In the examples of glide formation seen above, the two vowels have not been homorganic, i.e., they have not involved combinations of front vowel plus front vowel, or back vowel plus back vowel. When the two vowels agree in place of articulation, the expected glide from the first vowel is generally lacking. Relevant examples are seen in (5). Thus, when i combines with i, the result is a long /, but no glide y : glide formation alone would predict the incorrect result *yii, as in the middle column of representations in (5). Similarly, when u combines with u or o, the result is not *wuu and *woo, but rather uu and oo, exhibiting only vowel lengthening and no surface glide. (5)

[Ι-iitwá] [k-óogópa] [k-úusa]

'it (cl. 5) will be spilled' lyiitwá 'to fear' makunt[i]s

Ί / you m.s. was/were not'

For CA and other dialects of Arabic for which syllable-final Cts is either not attested or is broken up by epenthesis, ts is not analyzed as an affricate at any level in the phonology.

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4. Syllabification and the moraic model

The domain of syllabification is the phonological phrase / utterance in CA, and the phonological word in SA. In CA, and to a lesser extent in SA, several syntactically linked words can be grouped into a single accent group (Woidich 1980: 213-214). In this chapter I assume the moraic model proposed by Hayes (1989) in which underlying short vowels are assigned one mora, underlying long vowels are assigned two moras, and a coda consonant is assigned a mora in languages where CVC constitutes a heavy syllable under the weight-byposition condition. This is summed up under Sources of Syllable Weight in (16):

(16) Sources of Syllable Weight a. Short vowels contribute one mora and long vowels two moras (universal). b. Weight-by-Position: a 'coda' consonant is assigned a mora in the course of syllabification (parametric) (Piggott 1995: 287, 284). Syllabification takes place as in (17): (17)

a. b. c.

d.

e.

Consonant extrametricality: C > / ] word; Associate moraic segments to a syllable node; Given Ρ (an unsyllabified segment) preceding Q (a syllabified segment), adjoin Ρ to the syllable containing Q iff Y has a lower sonority rank than Q (iterative); Given Q (a syllabified segment) followed by R (an unsyllabified segment), assign a mora to R (Weight-by-Position) [Z/fR has a lower sonority rank than Q (iterative)]; Adjoin moraic R to the syllable containing Q (iterative) (cf. Clements 1990: 299).

Consider the stages of syllabification of Cairene wallet 'he lit' in (18a-e): (18) a. Domain-final consonant extrametricality:

w

μ

μ

I a l

I l

a

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b. Association of moraic segments to a syllable node:

w

σ I μ I a

σ μ I 1 a

1

c. Association of onset to a syllable node: σ

w

a

σ

l

l

a

d. Assignment of mora through Weight-by-Position: σ

w

a

σ

l

l

a

e. Adjunction of Weight-by-Position mora to syllable node: σ

w

a

σ

l

l

a

4.1. Epenthesis In CA, epenthesis of / (u in the environment of u) occurs between the second and third consonant whenever three consonants are potentially juxtaposed within the utterance, as in:

Syllable and syllabification in Modem Spoken Arabic

(19)

bint + wi-walad sa c b + suriya kull + sana

bint[i]4 w-walad sa c b[i] sunya kull[i] sana

509

'a girl and a boy' 'the Syrian people' 'every year'

In SA, epenthesis of a occurs whenever three consonants are juxtaposed within the phonological word, as in (20): (20)

hajj + nä ba c d + mä gabl + mä gult + lih

hajj[a]nä ba c d[a]mä gabl[a]mä gult[a]lih

'our pilgrim m.' 'after' 'before' Ί told him'

Epenthesis also occurs across phonological word boundaries but within the phonological phrase (i.e. within a genitive structure or between two identical nouns) in SA when an initial word ends in a geminate consonant or in two consonants which share a single zone of articulation and is followed by a word beginning with an oral consonant (i.e. not ?or h), as in (21): (21)

ahamm + say kull + wähid ayy + häjih

ahamm[a] say kuH[u]5 wähid ayy[i]6 häjih

'the most important thing' 'everyone' 'anything'

jamb + jamb sigg + sigg

jamb[a]jamb sigg[a] sigg

'side-by-side' 'side-by-side'

Epenthesis also occurs within set (usually genitive structure) phrases where the initial word ends in two consonants which violate the sonority hierarchy and the following noun begins with an oral consonant (i.e. not ? or h)\ (22)

bi-sakl + c amm

bi-sakl[a] c amm

'in general'

A number of analyses of epenthesis have been proposed recently (Itô 1989, Broselow 1992, Archangeli 1991, etc.). In this chapter, I follow Piggott (1995) in claiming that epenthetic syllables in Arabic are weightless and that epenthetic vowels are assigned no mora. Evidence for the weightlessness of epenthetic syllables in CA is based on the facts of pre-suffix lengthening. CA has a productive rule of pre-suffix vowel lengthening (Broselow 1976 and others), but only underlying vowels are lengthened; an apparently identical (but epenthetic) vowel in the same position is not subject to lengthening, as illustrated in the sets of minimal pairs in (23):

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(23) xussi versus xuss kunti versus kunt

'goinf.s.!'

ma-txussïs

'don't go in is.!'

'goinm.s.!' 'you f.s. were'

ma-txussis ma-kuntls

'don't go in m.s. !' 'you f.s. were not'

'you m.s. were'

ma-kuntis

'you m.s. were not'

Long vowels are represented as bimoraic. The epenthetic vowel in the second example of each pair fails to undergo vowel lengthening because vowel lengthening can add no more than one mora to the representation (Piggott 1995: 316), and the epenthetic vowel has no mora to either initiate mora projection or to make the sum total of moras two. Pre-suffix vowel lengthening can be represented as in (24): (24) Pre-Suffix Vowel Lengthening μ I ν

->

μ μ / SUFFIX i'-'' ν

In SA, pre-suffix vowel lengthening does not take place. This is due to the fact that morpheme-final long vowels have not been shortened historically and therefore short vowels (as the input to the Pre-Suffix Vowel Lengthening rule) are not attested in pre-suffixal position (see section 2 above). Word stress facts, however, suggest that epenthetic vowels are to be considered mora-less7 in SA, as in CA; the unmarked word stress rules8 of the dialect are as in (25) (cf. also Watson 1996: 70): (25) Sarfânî Word Stress A. Where the ultimate syllable is CVVC, stress a penultimate, or, if no penultimate, antepenultimate CVV or CVC'(C') syllable: e.g. ba*sâtïn 'gardens', *säbün 'soap', *xârijïn 'going out m.pl.', *däriyät 'knowing f.pl.', *xuttâf'clasp', *jazzär 'butcher', mu*xazzinïn 'chewers m.' B. Otherwise, stress an ultimate superheavy syllable (CVCC or CVVC) or ultimate CVV syllable in verbs: e.g. dis*män 'poor; rebel', ba*nat 'girls', bi*yüt 'houses', sä*fart Ί travelled', ma b*sarts Ί didn't see', yihib*bü 'they m. love', tis*tay 'you f.s. want'

Syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic

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C. Otherwise, stress the right-most non-final heavy syllable up to the antepenultimate: e.g. mi*dawwar 'rounded', *maklaf 'woman', *madrasih 'school', ma*kâlifih 'his women', a*sâmï 'names', D. Otherwise, stress the left-most light syllable: e.g. *katab 'he wrote', *darasat 'she learnt', *facilih 'problem', *ragabatih 'his neck', mak*tabatl 'my library' However, when an initial closed 'heavy' syllable takes an epenthetic vowel and there are otherwise no heavy syllables in the word 9 , the following syllable is stressed regardless of whether it is the final, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable in the word, as in: (26)

it*la c is*rab is*tagal is*tabahu 10

'go out!' 'drink!' 'he worked' 'they m. had breakfast'

4.2. Closed syllable shortening In CA, when a domain-final syllable of the structure CVVC is juxtaposed to a second syllable within the phonological word, long vowels are shortened to prevent structure violation (i.e. the appearance of non-phonological-word-final CVVC syllables). This is Closed Syllable Shortening (CSS) and can be understood as the final (once extraprosodic) consonant crowding out the vowel from the second mora to escape Stray Erasure (Kenstowicz 1994: 297). Morphemefinal consonants are extrasyllabic. When a consonant-initial suffix is concatenated to a word ending in CVVC, the final consonant C is no longer licensed and so maps onto the second mora, while the vowel melody is delinked from the second mora (Broselow 1992: 17): (27)

μ μ

μ μμ μ μ μ

μ

ν s ä + k u m (28)

μ μμ

safkum μ

I. V k i t a + n a

μ

μ

'he saw you pl.' μ

μ

k i t a b n a

'our book'

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In SA, CSS takes place within the phonological word between the stem of verbs with a medial glide (known as hollow verbs) which are realized in their non-suffixed form and before vowel-initial subject pronouns as CVVC, and consonant-initial subject pronouns (level one suffixes)11, as exemplified in (29) and (30): (29)

cf. (30)

cf.

gal gäl + t gäl + nä gäl + ö

gäl gult gulnä gälü

'he said' 'I/you m.s. said' 'we said' 'they m. said'

sär sär +1 sär + nä sär + ü

sär sirt sirnä särü

'he went' 'I/you m.s. went' 'we went' 'they m. went'

CSS also occurs between verbs and clitics (level two suffixes - prepositions and the negative suffix s), as in: (31)

gal + li yigöl + lanä yibî 0 + lak (mä +) kän + s (mä +) diiït + s

galli yigullanä yibiclak (mä) kans (mä) dirits

'he said to me' 'he says to us' 'he sells to you m.s.' 'he was not' Ί didn't know'

CSS also takes place between initial particles of the shape CVV and words with initial consonant clusters (usually resulting from syncope, see below), as in: (32)

sa + (a)srah lä + titawwulïs idä + rajamathä mä + nigül + s

sasrah la ttawwulïs idarjamathä ma nguls

Ί shall explain' 'don't f.s. be long' 'if she threw it f. ' 'we don't say'

CSS also takes place in the third masculine singular of hollow auxiliary verbs (also known as linking verbs) when followed by a main verb. This has the effect of cliticizing the auxiliary verb to syllabify within a larger phonological word12, as in: (33) gäm + rahlih gäm + yi c sablahä

gamrahlih gamyicsablahä

'he got up and went' 'he went and gave her money (as a present)'

Syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic

513

Diphthong shortening occurs in similar contexts to CSS in SA, and can also be considered an instance of CSS: in this dialect a restricted number of particles of the structure CayC may reduce the diphthong -ay- to -a-. This again has the effect of cliticizing the particle to syllabify within a larger phonological word. Thus, the diphthong -ay- of the question particles 'ayn 'where' and, less commonly, kayf 'how' is reduced to -a- when followed by a word beginning with an oral consonant (i.e. not h or /), as in: (34) ayn + gadak w-ayn + c ädak sala + ayn + särat kayf+kän

angadak wancädak salansärat kafkän

'where are you m.s.?' 'and where are you still?' 'where did she go?' 'how was it m.?'

Similarly, the diphthong -ay- of the feminine plural pronoun is often reduced to -a- in an auxiliary verb followed by a main verb, as in: (35) jayn + nitwälah jayn + yijlisayn

jannitwälah janyijlisayn

'come f.pl., let's have fun!' 'they f. came to sit'

In contrast to CA, CSS does not take place in SA between verbs/nouns and object/possessive pronouns (level three suffixes). At this level when the object or possessive pronoun takes initial h or η there are two options: either the once domain-final C' in C W C ' induces epenthesis to produce a CVVCVC(V) sequence; or, more commonly, C' does not induce epenthesis and a phonologicalword-internal C W C syllable is attested.13 Compare the paired examples in (36): (36) epenthesis kitäbanä niswänuhum aswätuhum yizürahä

CWC' + C kitäbnä niswänhum aswäthum yizürhä

'our book' 'their m. women' 'their m. voices' 'he visits her'

Where the object or possessive pronoun takes an initial consonant which is neither h or η (i.e. k), however, C' almost always induces epenthesis, as in: (37) epenthesis baytukum aswätakin

CWC' + C baytkum aswätakin

'your m.pl. house' 'your f.pl. voices'

As in the case of domain-final CVCCC syllables discussed in section 3 above, we could claim that syllables are normally maximally bimoraic, but that tri-

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moraic CVVC syllables are optional in restricted circumstances. However, I follow Broselow (1992, cf. also Broselow, Chen & Huffman 1997) in assuming that surface CVVC syllables are in fact bimoraic and are derived from an adjunction rule that creates moras dominating two segments (Broselow 1992: 1415): (38) Adjunction to mora

σ

^

V C

σ

" M V C

Adjunction to mora occurs optionally to produce CVVC syllables for reasons relating to sonority since "subsyllabic constituents whose elements are widely separated on the sonority scale are less marked than constituents with closer sonority distance" (ibid: 14); therefore, while a syllable-final mora may dominate two constituents VC exceptionally because of the greater sonority distance between V and C, it is unlikely that a mora could dominate two identical constituents CC (or, indeed, VV). Adjunction to mora thus accounts for the marked occurrence of word-internal CVVC syllables beside the non-occurrence of word-internal CVCC (or CVVV) syllables.14 If there were a language which allowed adjunction to mora to create a CC mora we could predict that it would also permit adjunction to create the less marked VC mora (ibid: 15). 4.3. Syncope In both CA and SA, syncope of unstressed short vowels occurs, but in CA the vowel affected is high, //h,15 and syncope does not take place if the resulting structure would create an impermissible syllable (Broselow 1992). In SA, by contrast, any of the short vowels a, i, u may be subject to syncope, and the output of syncope frequently produces structure-violating initial consonant clusters. In this section I shall begin by discussing the CA data. 4.3.1. Syncope in CA

In CA, syncope of high vowels in non-final, monomoraic syllables occurs whenever the output does not violate structure preservation. Thus, ζ in risala 'letter' and kibïr 'big' is subject to syncope after li and ...di in the following

Syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic

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phrases, and the mora of the syncopated vowel is assigned to the r of r(i)sala 'letter' and the k of k(i)bïr 'big', respectively: (39) kän yiktib Ii rsäla tardi kbïr

'he was writing me a letter' 'my parcel is big'

However, ; in risala is not subject to syncope after yiktib 'he writes' in the example below because this would create an impermissible syllable-initial consonant cluster, rs: (40) kan yiktib

risala

'he was writing a letter'

Similarly, syncope of i in kibir does not occur after hajar 'stone' since this would result in an impermissible initial consonant cluster, kb: (41) hajar kibïr

'a big stone'

Syncope often occurs after, and in consequence of, epenthesis, as in: (42) bint + kibïra hubb + kitlr bint + wi-walad

bint[i] kblra hubb[i] ktïr bintfi] w-walad

'a big girl' 'a lot of love' 'a girl and a boy'

Syncope also occurs within the phonological word, as in: (43)

madrasa + u cf. madrasa + na

madrastu madrasitna

'his school f. ' 'our school f.'

Where syncope does not take place (because the resulting structure would violate structure preservation), unstressed short vowels are often reduced to schwa (here transcribed as e), but they are not deleted, as in: (44)

mehammad medrasa

'Muhammad' 'school'

Broselow (1992) argues that the strong preference of dialects for bimoraic syllables underlies a number of phonological processes in Arabic including syncope. The preference for bimoraic syllables is expressed in terms of the Bimoraicity Constraint:

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(45) Bimoraicity Constraint Syllables are maximally and optimally bimoraic (Broselow 1992: 10). Broselow assumes that syncope applies blindly in all Arabic dialect types to destroy vulnerable monomoraic syllables (ibid: 35), and that structure is then restored where necessary by epenthesis (ibid: 36-37). This apparently works for CA and the other dialects (Iraqi, Sudanese, Makkan, Syrian) Broselow examines, but it cannot account for dialects in which syncope is partially lexical, where syncope is optional and restricted to a certain portion of the phonological word, and where syncope applies within bimoraic syllables as well as in monomoraic syllables, and this is what we find in SA.

4.3.2. Syncope in SA In SA, as in CA, syncope affects monomoraic syllables across words to reduce the number of syllables and maximize bimoraicity (see above). In contrast to CA, however, any of the short vowels a, i, and u may be subject to syncope: (46) mä + bilä mä + rajamathä + s gadü + kisil

ma blâ ma rjamathäs gadu ksil

'only' 'she didn't throw it f.' 'he is lazy'

However, syncope in SA not only reduces the number of monomoraic syllables to maximize bimoraicity, it also affects unstressed vowels at the beginning of the phonological word to produce apparently structure-violating clusters of up to three consonants in syllable onset position. Moreover, syncope in SA does not tend to affect unstressed vowels at the end of the phonological word. The unmarked rules for SA word stress assignment are given in (25) above; however, in contrast to CA, word stress fluctuates markedly in SA, particularly when a word receives main sentence stress in utterance-final position. There is also some evidence that contextual stress is partially determined on morphological grounds. Disyllabic words of the shape CVCVC or those taking the feminine singular nominal suffix -ih are most affected by stress fluctuation (cf. note 8 above), with the final CVC syllable frequently attracting stress in utterance-final position. Trisyllabic verbal forms, particularly the third feminine singular inflection in the perfect aspect, of the shape CVC VC VC are also susceptible to stress fluctuation. Thus the words given in (47) can be stressed on either the first or the second syllable, with syncope of the vowel of the first syllable occurring whenever the second syllable is stressed:

Syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic

first sikmih fitsih marih xasab hatab hiribat libisat

second skmih ftsih mrih xsab htab hribat lbisat

517

'feast of parturient on 40th day' 'unveiling' 'woman' 'wood' 'wood' 'she fled' 'she got dressed'

In the following words the first syllable is never stressed, and the word may be pronounced as alternative (a) or (b): (48)

a. fihimtï katabt hiribt jilist kabïr sitärih muhammad muganniyät yinaggisühä

b. fhimtï ktabt hribt jlist kblr stärih mhammad mganniyät ynaggisühä

'you f.s. understood' Ί wrote' Ί fled' Ί stayed' 'big; old m.s.' [colored women's cloak] 'Muhammad' 'singers f.' 'they tattoo her'

In addition, lexical syncope takes place optionally in (almost exclusively) plural and second feminine singular inflections of the medial geminate form II verbs (cf. above), particularly where the final consonant of the verbal stem is more sonorous than the middle consonant (the geminate). In this case syncope is accompanied by degemination of the middle consonant:16 (49) talla c ü ragga c ü yiwassulü yijamma c ü yikammilü yilabbisü

with syncope/degemination tal c ü 'they m. took up' rag c ü 'they m. sewed' yiwaslü 'they m. make (s.o./s.th.) arrive' yijam c ü 'they m. collect' yikamlü 'they m. complete' yilabsü 'they m. dress (s.o.)'

Where the first consonant of the verbal stem is a sibilant, syncope often also removes the vowel of the following bimoraic syllable, and is therefore not restricted to the final syllable of the stem:

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Janet C.E. Watson

(50)

yisakkimü yisaffitù c a-nsaffit

yiskmü yisftù c a-nsfit

'they m. feast the parturient' 'they m. make sfut' 'we make sfut'

If syncope were to apply blindly in SA to maximize bimoraicity it would not be possible to predict where 'structure-restoring' epenthesis would occur, particularly since syncope is not restricted to vowels in monomoraic syllables (see sikmih > skmih, yisakkimü > yiskmü, and tistay > tstay above).

5. Consonant clusters and the Sonority Sequencing Principle

According to the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), the sonority profile of preferred syllable types rises maximally at the beginning and drops minimally at the end. Initial consonant clusters resulting from syncope in SA can be divided into those which obey the sonority sequencing principle: occlusive (O) < fricative (F) < nasal (N) < liquid (L) < glide (G) (Clements 1990: 290), and those which flout it, as in (51): Sonority O kit/lana 'all of us', hagg + Sayx > haggfaj Sayx 'belonging to a shaykh'. Wherever sonority plateaus are involved in syllable-initial consonant clusters, the distance between the respective places of articulation of the two segments is crucial: in no instances of sonority plateaus in the SA data are identical places of articulation attested. Instances of 0 - 0 involve combinations of t + k (usually in that order). To this can be added less common, but nevertheless permissible, combinations: b + t, b + d, b + g, but never k + g, t + d, g + g, d + d, t + t, etc. "Clusters of s + stops are a well-known pattern in the world's languages in the sense that these segments typically cluster together even if a language does not have the Obstruent Sequencing Principle" (Rubach 1993: 218) In contrast to domain-final tS in CVCCC syllables considered above (section 3), tS is not analyzed as an affricate in the case of tStay 'you f.s. want'. This is because ί has been independently assigned a mora through the weight-by-position condition (cf. 16 above) prior to the application of syncope. It retains its mora and functions as the syllable peak of a vowelless syllable owing to its relative high sonority.

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References Abu-Mansour, M. 1992 Vowel shortening in two Arabic dialects. In E. Broselow, M. Eid & J. McCarthy (eds.), Perspectives in Arabic Linguistics IV. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 47-76. Archangeli, D. 1991 Syllabification and prosodie templates in Yawelmani. Natural language and linguistic theory 9, 231-283. Birkeland, H. 1952 Growth and structure of the Egyptian Arabic dialect. Oslo: Jacob Dylwald. Broselow, E. 1976 The phonology of Egyptian Arabic. PhD dissertation. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts. 1992 Parametric variation in Arabic dialect phonology. In E. Broselow, M. Eid & J. McCarthy (eds.), Perspectives in Arabic linguistics IV. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 7-45. Broselow, E., S.-I. Chen & M. Huffman 1997 Syllable weight: convergence of phonology and phonetics. Phonology 14, 47-82. Clements, G.N. 1990 The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In J. Kingston & M. Beckman (eds.), Papers in laboratory phonology J: Between the grammar and physics of speech. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 283-333. Fischer, W. 1969 Probleme der Silbenstruktur im Arabischen. Proceedings of the international conference on Semitic studies. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 65-69. Hayes, B P. 1989 Compensatory lengthening in moraic phonology. Linguistic inquiry 20, 253-306. Ito, J. 1989 A prosodie theory of epenthesis. Natural language and linguistic theory 7, 217259. Kager, R. 1995 Review article. Phonology 12, 437-464. Kenstowicz, M. 1994 Phonology in generative grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: ΜΓΓ Press. McCarthy, J.J. & A S. Prince 1990 Prosodie morphology and templatic morphology. In M. Eid & J.J. McCarthy (eds.), Perspectives in Arabic Linguistics II. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1-54. Naïm-Sanbar, S. 1994 Contribution a l'étude de l'accent yéménite: le parler des femmes de l'ancienne génération. Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik 27, 67-89. Piggott, G L. 1995 Epenthesis and syllable weight. Natural language and linguistic theory 13, 283326. Rubach, J. 1993 The lexical phonology of Slovak. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic

Vennemann, Th. 1988 Preference laws for syllable structure and the explanation Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Watson, J.C.E.

of sound

525

change.

1993 A syntax of SancäriiArabic. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. 1996 Sbahtü! A course in Sarfani Arabic. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. Wiese, R. 1996 The phonology of German. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Woidich, M. 1980 Das Ägyptisch-Arabische. In W. Fischer & O. Jastrow (eds.), Handbuch der Arabischen Dialekte. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 207-242. Woidich, M. & R. Heinen-Nasr 1995 Kullu Tamâm: Inleiding tot de Egyptische omgangstaal. Amsterdam: Bulaaq. Yip, M. 1991 Coronals, consonant clusters, and the coda condition. In C. Paradis & J-F. Prunet (eds.), The Special Status of Coronals: Internal and External Evidence. New York: Academic Press, 61-78. Zee, D. 1995 Sonority constraints on syllable structure. Phonology 12, 85-129.

17 The Romansch syllable Jean-Pierre

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1. Introduction

The first part of this chapter presents a general picture of the syllable in Romansch 1 , as I describe its vowel distribution, its surface structures and consonant phonotactics and focus on the right edge of word-final syllables which undergo processes of devoicing and epenthesis. In the second part (section 3), I propose a mora-building algorithm which interacts with syllable-building and on the basis of which the trochaic Romansch stress system can be determined. Section 4 reanalyzes a particular process that has been viewed as problematic for a moraic representation of the Romansch syllable: glide-hardening in Surmiran. I argue that the glide-to-velar hardening process can be shown to target only non-moraic glides, and thus provides a phonetic support for the validity of the moraic structures proposed in section 3.

2. Syllable overview 2.1. Vowels: surface generalizations The general shape of the vocalic system of Tujetsch Romansch offers no surprises within the context of Romance languages. It displays an Italian-like seven vowel distribution under stress, and three vowels in unstressed position, with reduction patterns reminiscent of Catalan: (1)

a.

stressed i e ε a

b. u o o

unstressed

i

c.

u a

reduction patterns i>i e, ε, a > a u, o, o > u

However, lax [ι] and [υ] do occur, and may have to be given phonemic status.2 Lax [i] is rare. It can be found before vowels: [bialts] 'beautiful', and it does not occur under stress, [υ] does: [buk], [tut]. This results from the asymmetry

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observed in many Romance languages, whereby Latin closed loi in checked syllables was raised, whereas Latin closed Id was lowered, as shown in (2): (2)

CUPPA > [kupa] TUSSE > [tus]

'cup' 'cough'

vs.

SICCU PISCE

> [sek] > [ρεJ]

'dry' 'fish'

The interplay in contrasts between long / short, tense / lax, diphthongs / monophthongs, and stressed / unstressed works in intricate patterns, as none of these contrasts can be totally dismissed as derived. Consider length: - Length and the lexicon: Length is clearly phonemic, as shown in (3), but also in some contexts is predictable. For instance, in closed syllables, long high vowels can be found only before fricatives and [r]: [di:r] 'hard', [parvi:s] 'heaven', [nu:J] 'nut'. Yet length cannot be contextually derived since we find in high back vowels an underlying short / lax vs. long / tense contrast, as in [tus] 'cough' vs. [vu:J] 'voice', or [tur] 'tower' vs. [fluir] 'flower'. 3 (3)

[ajiif] [zura] [guita] [galero]

'nest' 'over' 'throat' 'gravel'

[rondili] [gris] [gaveta] [ci:J]

'renewal 'grey' 'rim' 'ewe'

- Length and diphthongs: There is a clear relationship between long vowels and diphthongs, as expected in this Romance territory. But length does not occur outside of stress, while diphthongs do. - Length and stress: Vowel length does not occur outside of stress, and yet it is not derived from it. Rather, it often constitutes the basis for stress placement. In section 3, we present a moraic analysis of Tujetsch Romansch. - Length and tenseness: [i] and [u] cannot be long, but [e] and [o] can, when stressed. Additionally, [i] and [u] occur only in surface closed syllables; see above [kupa] vs. [tus]. - Length and syllable structure: A vowel can be long even though the syllable is closed by a consonant: [jaluis] 'jealous', [ci:J] 'ewe', but this can only occur in word-final syllables. Words that contain a long vowel have the shape ..CV:, ,.CV:C, or ..CV:Ca. There are no ,.CV:C.Ca. This would normally be interpreted as evidence for a bimoraic upper limit with word-final extrametricality, but we will see later that stress placement does not support extrametricality (i.e. word-final consonants do count for stress placement). We thus fall back on stipulating a tolerance for a super-heavy syllable in word-final position. Let us note, however, that if the final consonant in CV:C final syllables is represented as an appendix, there seem to be no featural restrictions attached to it in Tujetsch Romansch.

The Romamch syllable

529

2.2. Nuclearity and syllable-building Nuclearity is a problem, since we find both [j] and unstressed [i] before vowels, as in the word [patsiéntsja] 'patience'. Caduff comments on the difficulty of assigning syllabicity in diphthongs, as he hesitates between [éi] and [ej], [ie] and [je], etc... or even on the site of stress: [ie] or [jé], as in HIBERNU > [umviern] or [umvjérn]; cf. similar hesitations on Spanish muy. There is apparently no such hesitation for [u] / [w], Tujetsch Romansch displays falling diphthongs: [ej], [aj], [äj] ([ej] in Standard Surselvan), [aw], as well as rising diphthongs: [je], [je]. The sequences [we], [wa], [wi] seem to occur only word-initially or after [k], suggesting that they be analyzed as part of the onset. There are also two diphthongs with a schwa off-glide: [ua] and [io], as shown in (4). Finally, the tautosyllabic / heterosyllabic status of the [ie] sequence is not clear. (4)

SCOPA CODA SPICA

> [Jkua] > [kua] > [Jpia]

'broom' 'tail' 'ear'

Rising diphthongs are much rarer than falling diphthongs, and they do occur occasionally with a long vowel, as in [bje:] 'very much', [je:d], 'each time', [je:] 'yes'. On the other hand, there are no occurrences of V:G ([e:j], or [ä:j]).4 This distribution invites an analysis in which on-glides are analyzed as nonmoraic and off-glides (which in a constituent analysis probably would not be nuclear at all) as moraic. This is consistent with most recent claims concerning the status of glides in Romance. We do find [i:a], in words like [buaniia] 'epiphany' < EPIPHANIA, but it is quite possible that [i:] and [a] may be heterosyllabic vowels. Finally, we do not find tautosyllabic V:GC sequences, either word-finally or internally. It appears clearly that, while most of syllable structure does not have to be lexical (to the extent that it can be built on a sonority basis), nuclearity needs to be lexical and cannot be determined by position.

2.3. Consonant phonotactics The 28 consonantal phonemes of Tujetsch Romansch are given in Caduff (1952), as shown in (5). However, the alveolar [g] fails to show up in any of CadufFs examples. Caduff (1952: 85-86) mentions that the historical source of

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Jean-Pierre

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[g] is G + [e, i], and that it has merged in that context with prepalatal /g/ in Tujetsch Romansch. Voiced dental [dz] is also very marginal. (5) labial stops fricatives affricates nasals liquids

labiodental

dental t/d s/ζ ts/dz n 1

p/b f/v m

alveolar

prepalatal

palatal

J/3 c/g

ç/j

velar

guttural

k/g c/g

Ji 1

r

h

η

2.3.1. Onset well-formedness Of the 28 consonantal phonemes, only 23 can be onsets (to which one should add [w]). The following cannot be single onsets: [dz], [g], [ç], [ρ] and possibly [η]. As an onset, |ji] is very marginal: we note hesitations between [parva] and [niarva] 'nerves' and common epenthesis before initial [p]: NIDU > [ajiif] 'nest'. In two-consonant onset clusters, out of 784 combinatorial possibilities, we find very few attested in CadufFs data. They are only two kinds: obstruent + liquid, and [J-] + consonant5, i.e. the Latin types, and this gives Romansch a very conservative appearance. Word-initial two consonant clusters include: [pr], [br], [ f i r ] , [vr], [tr], [dr], [kr], [gr], [pi], [bl], [fl], [kl], [gl], [kw], [gw], [Jp], Lfm], [Jt] [Jn], [Jc], [Jk] and by assimilation [3g], as in: bgovlá] < EXDIABOLARE 'to curse'. Initial three-consonant clusters are limited to: [Jpr], [Jpl], [Jtr], [Jkr]· Word-internally, the general principles of Romance syllabification are followed, on the Latin model. As in many other Romance varieties, word-initial clusters form a subset of word-internal, syllable-initial clusters, with the notable exception of [s]+consonant clusters, which are heterosyllabic word-internally. In Romansch, however, the two sets are almost co-extensive: there is only one type of cluster which does not exist word-initially, but can surface word-internally: [tl]. Indeed, the co-occurrence of coronal stops + [1] is avoided, yet it is also attested. (6)

»PATELLANA

> [patláwna]

'a kind of cake'

PATELLARIU

> [patle:]

'three-legged stool'

SCATULA

> [Jkátlo]

'box'

Historically, avoidance is achieved through two common therapies: - non-deletion of unstressed vowel: [talé] < TELARIU

- velarization: [tl] > [kl]

The Rotnansch syllable

(7)

MARTELLARE BARTHOLOMAEU ROTOLARE SETOLA germ. REDLICH •TITULARE

> > > > > >

531

[marklá:] 'to hammer' [borklomíw] 'Bartholomew' [ruklá:] 'to fall' [säjkb] 'pigskin' [rekli] 'honest' [teklá:] 'to listen' alongside with [tetlá:]

If /JV is treated as an appendix, consonant clusters in onsets only need to obey a two-degree sonority scale: [-sonorant] > [+son, -nas].

2.3.2. Coda well-formedness Only 20 consonantal phonemes can be found in coda position. The following cannot be proper single codas: [b], [v], [d], [z], [dz], [g], [3], [g], [g] and [h] (in other words, all the voiced obstruents plus [h]), except word-internally, by assimilation: e.g. [razge] 'to saw'. The following two-consonant, word-final coda clusters are attested in Caduff: [It], [lm], [φ], [rm], [rf], [rt], [m], [rl], [rj], [rc], [rk], [Je], [Jt], [mf], [ns], [nts], [nc], while only [rms] can be found as a three-consonant cluster.6 In codas, a major class sonority scale is insufficient to build the syllable, as the appropriate scale needs to distinguish between two different degrees of sonorancy in liquids: (1 > r), to predict lack of epenthesis in words like [Jtiarl]; see section 2.3.3 below. Peripheral /s/ may be analyzed as an appendix in codas as it is in onsets. Voice assimilation follows the most common pattern of Romance languages, as it is triggered by obstruents only. Sonorants appear unspecified for voice.

2.3.3. Epenthesis Word-finally, a German-like situation obtains, whereby forms, whose underlying representations end in obstruent + sonorant, display consistent schwaepenthesis: (8)

[gâter] [cérkal] [pájvar] [flájval] [ázan]

contrasting with

'grid' 'iron-ring' 'pepper' 'feeble' 'donkey'

[pá:dar] [pecan] [áwqgal] [Jtátan] [tsiagsl]

'father' 'comb' 'angel' 'they stay' 'brick'

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Jean-Pierre Montreuil

[badél] [gatéX] [satél]

'shovel' 'kitten' 'thin, subtle'

These final sonorants7 cannot be incorporated into the syllable, because of sonority. Epenthesis applies as a therapy. Predictably, there is disagreement as to whether these final sonorants should be analyzed as syllabic or co-articulated with (or preceded by) schwa. Traditional sources all transcribe [gátar] rather than [gátr]. As predicted by sonority, we find no schwa between [r] and other sonorants: [Jtíarl], *[JtÍ3rol] 'calf; [viarm], *[vk>ram] 'worm'; [cern] *[ceran] 'horn'. We should find a schwa between nasals and liquids, and we do, but this is obscured by homorganic consonant epenthesis: [brumbal] 'flowerbud'. Epenthesis occurs within words in stress-governed alternations like [cerkol] / [cerklá:] 'circle' / 'to circle', but it functions as a post-lexical rule and is bled by resyllabification: [Jtrukl o:ra], *[Jtrukal o:ra] 'to wring out (clothes)'. This post-lexical process stands in contradistinction to two cases of lexical 'minor' epenthesis: 1. before [J], after [d] and [1], where the epenthetic schwa is often raised in anticipation of the palatal: (9)

[kó:dij] [pólli η [sáilij] [dó:dij] [séidij]

'book' 'thumb' 'willow' 'twelve' 'sixteen'

[forj] [mar/] [λύη|]

*[fora/] •[maraj] •[XúnaJ]

or [se:daj"]

but 'scissors' 'lazy' 'far'

2. in CC-C contexts, as in [diarvat] 'patch' and [dájvat] 'debt', [cejpot] 'grass'. In both of these cases, analyzing schwa as anything but epenthetic would disrupt the stress rule.

The Romansch syllable

533

2.4. Devoicing I propose to analyze devoicing in Romansch as the result of a constraint limiting the licensing of Laryngeal (LAR) nodes, in the spirit of Lombardi (1995). The formulation of the Laryngeal Constraint is the following: (10) Laryngeal Constraint (Lombardi 1995) σ

[-son] ([+son]) I

V

LAR

This constraint stipulates that a laryngeal node is only licensed in an obstruent if it precedes a ([+son]) V segment in the same syllable. It is responsible for the limitation on coda consonants and coda clusters noted earlier. It creates alternations of the kind: [go:p] / [g^:bo] 'hunched-masc./fem.', [lare] / [larga] 'widemasc./fem.'. Lombardi explains that conceiving of devoicing as neutralization by the laryngeal constraint naturally allows for what is traditionally called voicing assimilation and voicelessness assimilation without the need for [-voice]. Voice is privative, and the mechanism is simple enough: 1) unlicensed LAR nodes are deleted by virtue of the laryngeal constraint in 'non-prevocalic' position, and 2) voice spreads leftwards. In this fashion, "if the right-most, prevocalic obstruent is voiced, the feature [voice] will spread, yielding a cluster of all voiced consonants. If the right-most consonant is voiceless, there is no feature to spread, but the result is exactly the correct one: a cluster of voiceless consonants". In discussing the domain of the laryngeal constraint across languages, Lombardi (1995) notes that it "may be operative only at certain points in the phonological derivation" (Lombardi 1995: 50). Thus, in Swedish, it applies in the early phonology, while in Klamath, it kicks in only late in the derivation. Devoicing in Tujetsch Romansch can be reinforced by German influence, since most speakers of Romansch are bilingual with German, yet Romansch devoicing differs from German devoicing in that it does not affect words in the phrasal phonology. It is post-lexical, bled by resyllabification and strictly phrase-final:8 (11) [el karg el pe 1 gúlo] [ir äjn ad o:ra]

'he grabs him by the neck' 'to come in and out'

*[..karc...] *[...9t...]

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Jean-Pierre

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3. Syllables and moras 3.1. Mora-building It will be my contention that moras play a crucial role in the phonology of Tujetsch Romansch, and that their interaction with syllables can be formally captured in a systematic fashion. This will be demonstrated here in two ways: first, at the supra-segmental level, by showing how stress recognizes moraic structure and applies to it in a simple and productive fashion, in spite of the surface complexity of syllable shapes; secondly, at the segmental level, by showing that specific processes of phonology can be sensitive to the moraic value of segments. This section addresses the first of these two points. The moraic value of vowels in Romance falls in accordance with the tenets of moraic theory (cf. Hayes 1994), but the moraic value of glides and coda consonants is a matter of parameterization. While the stress patterns of the language clearly suggest that coda consonants are moraic, since CVC is consistently treated as heavy (Zee 1995), as will be shown later, the parameterization of glides merits further discussion. Two questions emerge: in which context are glides moraic? Is moraicity predictable? In a phonology that believes that redundant information should be excluded from the lexicon, it should first be determined whether all moras have to be lexical, and to what degree it is possible to make use of an algorithm to determine their location. Moras can be used for two immediate purposes: lexically, to encode the phonemic contrast between long and short vowels; and algorithmically, to discriminate between two kinds of high elements. To perform the latter task, sonority contours again provide the appropriate starting point 9 . To assign moras to words in isolation, we only need a subset of the sonority scale, i.e. a three-degree scale that will distinguish between non-high vowels (here, = V), high vowels (= H), and consonants (= C). The symbol # indicates silence or lack of articulation. (12) [-cons, -high] [-cons, +high] [+cons] no articulation

-> V = 3 -> H = 2 -»· C = 1 # = 0

The mora-building algorithm we propose goes as follows:

The Romansch syllable

535

(13) Mora-building algorithm: a. All non-high vowels are inherently moraic (pan-Romance): μ I [-cons, -high] b. High vowels: [-cons, +high] can be moraic by position; specifically: i. all peaks are moraic. Given (13a), Η will receive μ in: CH# (=120), #H# (=020) or CHC (=121), but ii. in non-peak position, it will receive μ only when final, i.e. HH# (=220), VH# (=320) and not in VHV (=323), VHC (=321) or HHC (=221). In other words, whenever Η is involved, a differential of at least 2 must separate the last two digits. In (14), we show how various syllable shapes are affected by mora-assignment. A direct application of this model is discussed in section 4. (14)

μ

μ

μ

I

I

I

(C) Η

Η Η

(C) Η C

I

μ μ

μ

μ

μ

I

I I

I

V Η

(C) Η V

V ΗC

ΗΗ C

3.2. Relationship between syllabicity and moraicity In her attempt to establish a typology of weight systems, Zee (1995) is led to examine the implications concerning the sonority of post-nuclear elements. This approach allows for statements of the kind: "If a language has heavy CVC syllables, it also has C W syllables" because the second mora of CVC is less sonorous than the second mora of C W . Typically, a language will select one of several options concerning syllabicity and moraicity, only three of which are shown in (15). They can be syllabic / moraic: only vowels (option a), vowels and sonorants (option b), all segments (option c). Out of the possible set of moraic segments given by Zee (1995: 122), Tujetsch Romansch selects option c.

536 (15a)

Jean-Pierre

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Possible set of moraic segments

a.

b. μ I [-cons]

μ I [+son]

Out of the possible set of syllabic segments given by Zee (1995: 122), Tujetsch Romansch selects option b. (15b)

Possible set of syllabic segments

a.

b. σ I 1 [-cons]

c. σ I 1 [+son]

We observe that Tujetsch Romansch verifies the general prediction that "the set of syllabic segments is a subset of the moraic set" (Zee 1995: 85). Furthermore, although not all segments can be codas (cf. section 2.3.2), all coda segments function as moraic. Thus, in the typology proposed by Zee (1995: 113), Tujetsch Romansch belongs to Type 3. (15c)

a. Type b. Type c. Type d. Type

1 : syllabic set < moraic set < segment inventory 2: syllabic set = moraic set < segment inventory 3: syllabic set < moraic set = segment inventory 4: syllabic set = moraic set = segment inventory

So far, the approach that I have taken is characterized by the following features: - both syllabic structure and moraic structure are derived from considerations having to do with sonority. This is a desirable result since both of them should be viewed as predictable. What is not predictable, and presented here as lexical, is nuclearity (although we have not sought to formalize it here to any degree). - syllables and moras are derived separately, yet they do interact. Their interaction results from the fact that moras have been assigned on the basis of the sonority of tautosyllabic sequences, implying that one knows where syllable boundaries are. Moreover, as we now proceed to see, there is an upper limit of mora content within the syllable.

The Romansch syllable

537

3.3. Lexical stress The Caduff(1952) data substantiate an analysis supporting transparent assignment of moraic trochees without any extrametricality or iterativity. The Tujetsch Romansch stress rule simply reads: (16) Within the prosodie domain, stress the penultimate mora. This is based on the following observations: - Typical word endings take the following shape: - VO, as in [umblíe], foalúis] - VG, as in [firáw], [kopíw], [duméj] - VN, as in [mulin], [karjcáwn], [kalkáji] - VR, as in [fuméÁ], [badél] - VO[a, i], as in [ráj39], [hónta], [frávi], [nájdi] - VN[a, i], as in fvéjia], [Jpéma], [sjémi] - VR [a, i], as in [tandera], [mozíra], [kbvéta], [hontseli] - V[a], as in [Jpío] - V:, as in [fané:], [rejtí:] (nouns); [muri:], [samná:] (verbs) - There do not exist words ending in CV where V is short and stressed, except in very few monosyllabic verb forms: [gó], [sé] (there are no light monosyllabic nouns or adjectives).10 - The only short vowels that can occur at the end of words are unstressed [a] and [i]: [mjárvi], [válti] vs. [izi:], [rajti:] - Quantity-sensitivity is confirmed by the absence of *CVCV (i.e. stressed on the last syllable although it is light) and *CVCV: (i.e. stressed on the penult even though the last syllable contains a long vowel). - There do exist words that are stressed on the penult even though the last syllable is CVC. This results from the interaction of prosody and morphology and constitutes evidence that the domain of stress-assignment is not the word, but a morphological unit smaller than the word. It does not include information brought in at later levels of morphological concatenation. In a word like [wáfans] 'tools', stress is assigned on /wafii/, prior to the assignment of number. If final /s/ counted toward stress assignment with a mora of its own, stress would fall on moraic Ini (*[wofáns]?). Similarly, we find [nosiws] rather than *[nosjús], etc... . In nouns, assignment occurs regularly on the stem, i.e. after the concatenation of gender markers, but prior to plural inflection. Similarly, in verbs, early morphology (theme vowels, etc...) is included within the domain, but not late verbal inflection (e.g. person markers): [téjios] 'you hold'. The basic Romance character of this type of morphology / prosody interaction, and the variations it can adopt, is discussed in Montreuil (1995) (and references

538

Jean-Pierre

Montreuil

therein). In Tujetsch Romansch, there are no forms ending in *CVCVC unless the second vowel is epenthetic or the final consonant is inflectional. - Finally, assignment of a moraic trochee is not iterative, as shown by the full reduction of the first vowel in words like: (17)

ancali: amvarnáwn ambii dà: kacadúr

'to temper (steel)' 'pig' 'to forget' 'hunter'

4. Glide-hardening in Surmiran

4.1. Background and description Problematic areas include the hardening of glides in Surmiran, a dialect closely related to Surselvan. Surmiran is sometimes refeiTed to as a central dialect within the Romansch group, intermediary between the Western group (Surselvan + Sutselvan) and the Eastern or Engadinese group (Puter + Vallader). Surmiran has very much the same vocalic phonology as Sursilvan, except that length-related generalizations are somewhat less clear. Hardening can be defined rather broadly as a process by which consonants function as allophones of glides. The phonetic effect is to cut short the trailingoff of the glide, as in the familiar yep and nope of American English (a slightly misleading example, however, since such parasites are overwhelmingly velar rather than labial, across languages). In the tradition of Indo-European philology, this is commonly referred to as the 'Verschärfimg' (=sharpening) effect, and it specifically refers to the obstruentization in Gothic and in Norse of ProtoGermanic geminate glides /jj/ and /ww/. Velar parasites in Romance and Germanic (German, Dutch and Danish) have been studied by Andersen (1988), whose discussion includes consideration of other parasitic effects such as velar friction and glottal stops. In Romance languages, hardening occurs in irregular patterns, in areas as diverse as Wallon, Island Norman and Vendéen. Only in Franco-Provençal, Raeto-Romance and some Northern Italian dialects does it attain any degree of systematicity. In these areas, so-called 'parasitic velars', i.e. [k], [g] and [q], develop as excrescences of (usually stressed) syllables, yielding forms like Surmiran [lukf] ' w o l f , [durmekr] 'to sleep', Engadinese [ugre] 'hour', [Jtygva] 'room', Valaisan [dugra] 'hard-fem.', [kraqma] 'cream' (see Gauchat 1906, Gerster 1927, Krier 1985, Montreuil 1990, and Hajek's 1992 study of [η] parasites in Bolognese). In Raeto-Romance, hardening is most frequent in Surmiran

The Romansch syllable

539

and Higher Engadine. Surmiran glide-hardening is well-documented in Lutta 1923 and Grisch 1939. Compare forms from Central Surmiran (Bravuogn) to their cognates in the peripheral Sursès" dialect of Stierva, which has only sporadic hardening, only before /t/ ([r] and [J] mean devoiced [r] and [1]): (18) Hardening in Bravuogn (data from Grisch 1939: 27) ETYMON

Bravuogn

Stierva

ME(N)SE

meks nekf mekj dekt frekt fregda klikr piks dikr digra ogre vokj" dzukf lukf Xakr

mejs nejf mejl det frekt frejda kulejr pejs dejr dejro

NIVE MELU DIGITU FRIGIDU FRIGIDA COLLEGERE PEJUS DURU DURA HORA VOCE JUGU LUPU LEPORE

3WTO

vowj gowf lowf /(ojr

'month' 'snow' 'apple' 'finger' 'cold-masc. ' 'cold-fem. ' 'collect' 'worse' 'hard-masc. ' 'hard-fern. ' 'hour' 'voice' 'yoke' 'wolf 'hare'

We observe in (18) that the Bravuogn words display velar obstruents, while their cognates in the related dialect display a preponderance of glides in the same position. As a result, the Bravuogn words will often end in clusters which defy proper sonority sequencing. We also observe that these velar obstruents occur only in pre-consonantal position (in fact, only before coronals and [f]). This is only one of the processes which contribute to the creation of heavy consonant clusters in word-final position (e.g. [krekfp] < CRISPU, [uvekjtc] < *OBISPU). Thus, in words like those in ( 1 9 ) , which end in a four-consonant cluster, only the second and fourth consonants are underlyingly consonants (and etymological), while [k] is an underlying glide and [t] is epenthetic. (19)

[iXdz bokfts] [iXts pokrts] [las flukrts]

'the oxen' 'the farmers-masc.' 'the flowers'

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Jean-Pierre Montreuil

We will see that, phonologically, there is every reason to analyze these velar obstruents as glides. Hardening thus creates an unusual situation, wherein phonetics and phonology are at odds, because some phonological activity will respond to the fact that these segments are phonological glides, while other processes respond to the fact that they are phonetic obstruents. It is a challenging situation for phonological analysis, as is often the case every time we see a change in major category (here: from G to C). Furthermore, in an autosegmental framework, this segmental change is accompanied by a structural change or re-association at the suprasegmental level. The challenge is to determine which of the two caused the other, i.e. whether the phonetics or the phonology is in control. It is accepted, since Gartner (1893), that these obstruents arose historically as the result of a two-step strengthening process: 1. obstruentization, as glides strengthen into fricatives. E.g.: ej > eç and ow > ox; 2. occlusion, as fricatives become stops. This occlusion is accompanied by a Place merger to the velar position, since there does not exist a phonemic palatal / velar contrast in stops as there does in fricatives. E.g.: eç > ek and ox > ok. These velar obstruents do not occur after [a] (e.g.: [brat], 'arm', not *[brakt]), since the low vowels that did diphthongize historically were raised to mid-vowels, but they resurface in alternations such as [razge:r] / [regzgo] 'to saw' / '(s/he) saws'. Positing underlying glides for these velar segments is motivated by a number of synchronic facts: - the presence of new sonority-violating clusters, as indicated above. - the presence of alternations, where pre-vocalic glides alternate with preconsonantal velars. This affects both [j] and [w], but there are more instances of [j] than of [w]. This occurs mostly in the verbal morphology; in nouns, morphological alternations are hard to come by (but there are prosodie alternations, as will be shown presently). (20) / kovrej+r / 'to cover'

—» [kuvrekr]

vs.

/ kovrej + a / -» [kogvro] (he/she) covers

- the fact that these velars fail to trigger the same processes that other consonants trigger. Most specifically, a final cluster deriving from a final /jl/ or /jr/ will not be broken up by epenthesis as the glide hardens. Instead, the entire cluster devoices. Compare [krekr] 'to believe' and [mekj] 'apple', both with a hardened glide and devoicing, to [meter] 'to put' and German borrowing [tsiagal] 'tile', both with an underlying stop and epenthesis:

The Romansch syllable

541

[kreki], not *[krekar] [mek|], not *[mekal]

(21) /krej+r/ / mejl / vs. / met + r / / tsi:gl /

[metar], not *[metr] [tsiagal], not *[tsiagl]

- the fact that only those velar segments which can be analyzed as hardened glides may alternate with zero in unstressed position. These reduction patterns are difficult to capture, for several reasons. First, because even under full stress, these velars are apparently subject to variations in strength. Thus Lutta (1923) is careful to point out that to a fine ear there are several distinct degrees of salience, although he says that his system of transcription indicates only the absence or the presence of [k / g] (which is not quite true, since he will occasionally use superscript or parenthesis notation: [vegva] or [vcBva] or [ve(g)va]). Secondly, reduction in unstressed position is apparently optional, since along with examples like (22a), we find forms like (22b), and Lutta will frequently indicate the possibility of an alternative pronunciation (22c): (22) a. [amplekr] [dzukr] [ekr] b. [trikt] [treks] c. [rik] [trigda]

/ / / / / / /

[ampler o:r] [dzur nwits] [er a Jkota] [trigd meks] [tregz e:vnos] [ri3dukja] or [rigsdukja] [trid o:ra] or [trigd o:ra]

'to fill' / 'over' / 'to go' / 'bad' / 'three' / 'carrot' / 'bad-fem.'/

'to fill up' 'overnight' 'to go to school' 'bad month' 'three weeks' 'sweet carrot' 'bad weather'

The proper generalization must obviously be diluted to not much more than a tendency: the stronger the stress, the higher the likelihood of having glides surface as velars. The point remains that these velars are susceptible to alternation with zero, while underlying glides, which a traditional analysis would analyze as codas, show no tendency to delete: [amej] 'friend' never shows up as *[9me]. In addition, we must make note of the alternations in voicing which the hardened glides undergo, as they show up as [k] in word-final clusters and as [g] whenever they precede a voiced consonant word-internally. This alternation can most readily be observed in the gender morphology of nouns and adjectives (23a), the number morphology of collective nouns (23b), and diminutives in which the first syllable does not fully de-stress (23c).

542

Jean-Pierre

(23) a. [frekt] [dikr] [pokr] b. [iX pckf] c. [pokr]

Montreuil

/ / / / /

[fregda] [digra] [pogrs] [la pegra] [pogret]

'cold-masc.' / 'hard-masc.' / 'farmer-masc.' / 'the pears-sing.'/ 'farmer-masc.' /

'cold-fem.' 'hard-fem.' 'farmer-fem. ' 'the pears-coll.-pl.' 'farmer-dim.'

The syntax of devoicing and voice assimilation reveals an unexpected degree of complexity and deserves a separate treatment. Generally, we find that Surmiran, like Tujetsch Romansch, displays phrase-final devoicing, but that voice assimilation and voicing (before a vowel) across word-boundaries is syntactically controlled. Voicing occurs in (24a) and fails to occur in (24b): (24) a. [tre:z a tre:s] [taz amdzegras] [εtaz aq az de:das] [iXdz ard,3cqts] b. [tje:arp da katar pletjas] [tjantameqts da drets] [XuntJ davent]

'through and through' 'the measures' 'they fought' 'rinse water' '(a type of) salamander' 'legal statutes' 'far ahead'

However, final clusters involving hardened glides surface as voiced in the phrase before any voiced elements, be they voiced obstruents, sonorants or vowels, even in syntactic contexts similar to those in (24b), as shown in (25). (25) [klikr] [mikfj [dikr] [santekr] [svekf] [sekf] [Xokr]]

/ / / / / / /

[kligr amdjas] [migr vi:/( ts] [digr da ko:r] [santegr me:l] [svegr or dad o:r] [la segv vegva] [la Xogr alva]

'to gather' 'mouse' 'hard' 'to hear' 'to know' 'fence' 'hare'

/ / / / / / /

'to gather raspberries' 'field mouse' 'hard-hearted' 'she is hard of hearing' 'to know by heart' 'hedge' 'snow hare'

Furthermore, Lutta (1923: 317) notes several examples, which he calls "remarkable", in which a voiced [g] surfaces in unstressed position before a voiceless obstruent or a sequence liquid + voiceless obstruent, instead of the expected [k]. This creates unexpected voice contours within clusters; these contours are absent from clusters containing underlying velars and are only documented where hardened glides occur.

The Romansch syllable

543

'to come' / 'to soften up' 'crest' / 'Big Hill' (a place name) 'to know / 'to know everything better'

(26) [jiekr] / [ferjiegrpi b m ] [krekjte] / [kregjte gronda] [savekf] / [savegr tôt pi beq]

4.2. Analysis Working within a constituent-based framework, Kamprath (1985) posits a structural distinction between VG sequences in branching rimes (27a) and VG sequences in branching Ν (27b). Only the latter harden, and only the latter reduce outside of stress: (27) a.

R

b.

R

A Ν I V

Co I G

regular

I Ν A V

G

hardening

Thus, the phonology of hardening and reduction is viewed as a nucleus phenomenon. While codas remain unaffected by their segmental and prosodie environment, branching nuclei are unstable constructs which sometimes harden (on the right edge before a consonant) and sometimes reduce (prosodie reduction: no branching Ν except under stress). This analysis makes good sense of reduction, which is thus viewed as configurational simplification. It does not in itself explain hardening, but it has the merit of providing a structural basis for selecting appropriately the candidates for hardening. This structural distinction, which Kamprath dubs "post-peak", is obviously not available in moraic phonology. Off-glides cannot subdivide into nuclear glides vs. coda glides. Consequently, Kamprath (1989) analyzed hardening as evidence against moraic theory. It was subsequently reanalyzed in Montreuil 1990, as part of a broader study of hardening that included Franco-Provençal. But another distinction is available: off-glides can be moraic or non-moraic.12 One would naturally assume, given a bimoraic norm, that a final vowel + glide sequence would have a moraic glide, as shown in (28), whereas the same sequence in a non-final position would have a non-moraic glide13 (recall that final consonants are moraic), as in (29):

544 (28)

(29)

Jean-Pierre Monireuil

μ

μ

I V

I G

μ

μ

I I V G C This is precisely what our mora-building algorithm has determined. Our algorithm in (13) derived glides from high vowels ( G < H), leaving a subset of H unaffected and these are precisely the ones that display a fluctuating behavior. (30) IM. LË i VHC H H C hardening

i i

glides

I contend that the correlation with stress is simple: unassociated glides, as in (29), do not surface outside of stress, due to the application of the stray erasure convention. Only under stress do they reassociate to a prosodie node and escape erasure; and in doing so, they harden. Stress thus functions as a factor of preservation. The next question is: exactly which prosodie node do unassociated glides reassociate to? A possible candidate, often the target of late adjunctions, is the upper node, here: σ. This leads to positing somewhat ambiguous structures such as the one illustrated in (31): (31) μ

σ A

μ

I I V G C The alternative would be to convert (29) into (32) or (33) through mora-sharing:

The Romansch syllable

(32)

μ μ I \ I V GC

(33)

μ μ ι / I V GC

545

To the extent that it reassociates G to the mora of V, left-readjunction, as in (32), emphasizes the nuclear-like aspect of the process, which works well with reduction. It also has the advantage of respecting the historical derivation and not forcing historical linguistics to motivate a structural change. From the theoretical point of view, it is consistent with the spirit of Kamprath's analysis. It also would be quite congruent with models that maintain a level of nucleus representation even within moraic theory.14 It does not work so well with the idea that diphthongs are the shape that long vowels take in Surmiran (according to Kamprath, there are no long vowels15, and, as we have seen, V:G before a consonant does not occur). If length is represented by μ \ we should avoid the 'short diphthong' representation for VG.1 Right-readjunction, as in (33), is more in touch with the consonantal, "codaish" phonetic behavior of hardening glides. Right-readjunction is obviously the surface representation which best accounts for epenthesis vs. devoicing, as explained earlier. However, I will contend here that there is no reason to even consider hardening glides as changing their moraic allegiance, i.e. there is no reason to think that the syllable-structure undergoes a synchronic shift from (32) to (33). What is needed is to distinguish two types of glides, and I propose that this be done through the difference in association to μ (28 vs. 29) - again, not a lexical distinction, but one derived by algorithm, as explained earlier. Hardening glides are unassociated glides which reassociate rightwards to μ late in the derivation. In this fashion, G in (29) will reattach only after stress has applied and disappear by convention when unstressed. (34) Verschärfung - Under stress, reassociate G rightwards: μ

I G C

μ

->

A G C

- Phonetic consequence: G > C

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Jean-Pierre

Montreuil

Even though, in this case, most phonological activity is motivated and expressed by constraints, this approach retains a sense of a derivation, which I summarize in (35). Stress and epenthesis are early processes, which precede hardening. The laryngeal constraint, however, applies post-lexically, after hardening. 17 Words like [metar] undergo only the early processes, while words with an underlying glide like [jdeky] are affected by the activity that takes place in the post-lexical component. (35) Early phonology

Late constraints

Early phonology Verschärfung

\ Stress and Epenthesis \ Verschärfung iG>C 1 laryngeal constraint Ι/metr/ ! stress, epenthesis

/ z d r e j r/ stress

;-

yes

!Laryngeal constraint

LI™*»:!

l3dckr]

I

Viewing the G > C change as the phonetic consequence of rightward association should not be interpreted as a mere matter of stipulation. I suggest that this change in major category should be related to a more general licensing principle, which would state that a mora can license only one value of a major category feature. In this case, the licensing condition can simply take the representation given in (36). Right-readjunction means that G will reassociate to a mora which dominates C, and in doing so, it will see its consonantal value turn to positive, since no contour in consonantality is tolerated in this branching structure: (36) [-cons]

[+cons]

5. Conclusion

In this chapter, I have presented an analysis of the Romansch syllable which deals with the various patterns of relationship that obtain between the segmental level and syllabic structure. A number of descriptive generalizations

The Romansch syllable

547

concerning these relationships (length, stress, tenseness, glides) were first e x pressed through reference to the traditional constituents o f the syllable. Stating such generalizations in these terms may easily create the illusion that a c o n stituent-based v i e w o f the syllable allows for the best analysis. I claim on the contrary that moraic structure is an integral part o f the phonological s y s t e m o f Romansch. This is first demonstrated in general terms b y facts concerning stress assignment. But moraic structure is also responsible for m e l o d i c processes, as s h o w n b y the behavior o f hardened glides in Surmiran. I proposed a sonority-based algorithm for mora-assignment and outlined the relationship that moras entertain with other elements o f prosody (syllables and feet). It appears that the facts concerning hardening f o l l o w naturally from the moraic algorithm since they can all be captured under one generalization: non-moraic glides harden under stress. Hardening is interpreted as the phonetic c o n s e q u e n c e o f the re-association o f a non-moraic glide to a C-dominating μ. This in turn f o l l o w s from the more general principle that a mora can license only one value o f [cons].

Notes ].

2.

3.

4. 5.

The generalizations made in the first part of this chapter are not meant to refer to Dolomitic Ladin or to Friulan, but they can apply, with some adjustments, to all five dialects of Romansch: Western (Surselvan, Sutselvan), Central (Surmiran), and Eastern, or Engadine Ladin (Puter, Vallader). However, to prevent confusion, and because there is such a fragmentation of dialects in that area, I will refer mostly to Tujetsch Romansch, a variety of Surselvan. My reference is Caduff (1952), who provides us with a description of the subdialect of the Tujetsch Valley. It is a very good reference for our purposes, since thousands of words can be found in detailed phonetic form, and both stress and length have been carefully transcribed. Because Tujetsch Romantsch is little-known even by Romance specialists, I often include Latin etyma. This should not be interpreted as a sign that alternations are historical when the context indicates otherwise. The tense / lax distinction in high vowels carries a small functional load. With phonemic Iii and /u/, the stressed system is identical to that of Sutselvan (Haiman & Benincà 1992: 31). The historical source of this vocalic contrast does reside in the nature of the following consonant in the sense that vowel shortening (and laxing) only occurred before a geminate ([tus] < TUSSE, [tur] < TURRE) or a cluster. Montreuil (1990) analyzes a similar situation in Milanese and reviews arguments for and against the synchronic status of a mora-spreading rule deriving vowel length from coda weight. - except for one occurrence [a:j] ([3a:j] 'to lie'), which may well be a 'false diphthong' if [j] is analyzed as a coda. /s/ has palatalized before another consonant, a feature common to all Romansch dialects. It functions as an appendix, which does not trigger epenthesis. Word-internally,

548

6.

7. 8.

9.

10.

11. 12.

13. 14.

15.

Jean-Pierre Montreuìl

pre-consonantal [J] is a coda, so this analysis of word-initial /s/ preserves the invariant or apositional character of the Romansch syllable. - to which we should add a few clusters ending in [s] preceded by an adventitious [t], as in words like bialts. Also, the word [herpjt] displays a four-consonant cluster, in which the final [t] is non-etymological: < HERPICE. Caduff says [m η 1 r], but gives no examples with [m]. A parallel should be established here with the facts concerning the domain of voice assimilation. Unfortunately, Caduff provides too few examples of words in phrasal context for us to determine these facts with clarity. Within words, clusters are always homogeneous for voice. Across words, it appears, from the few examples given, that no assimilation takes place between obstruent and sonorant: [piare máskal] 'wild boar' (which comes as no surprise in the context of Romance), but also that no regressive assimilation takes place between two obstruents, a much more unexpected observation: [ε dáws go] 'he fell' [los vákas] 'cows' [lak de tú ma] 'Turna lake' We shall see in section 4 that Surmiran differs from Tujetsch Romansch in this respect. Whether sonority must be understood as a primitive or can be derived from structure (as suggested in Rice 1992) - and in the latter case, what exactly the advantages are - goes beyond the scope of this chapter. This generalization does not hold so well for standard Surselvan, which has secondclass verbs ending in short [é] (e.g. [turné]), while Tujetsch Romansch and Surmiran have diphthongs or long vowels ([tumäj] and [turné:], respectively). Sursès, or Oberhalbsteinisch, is a subdialect of Surmiran. Kamprath (1989) examines the possibility of characterizing hardened glides as nonmoraic, but rejects it ultimately, because of the lack of parallelism between hardened glides and other final non-moraic elements which fail to reduce when unstressed. This leads her to defend an x-based analysis in which she posits abstract final x's to account for contrasts like [pevsl] / [pefj] 'fodder' / Ί feed'. We would contend that the parallelism she alludes to is unwarranted and that, given correct assumptions regarding prosodie domains - as sketched out earlier - , a moraic analysis is not threatened by such morphological contrasts. The term 'non-moraic glide' is used here to refer to a glide which does not have a mora of its own. If we re-instate within moraic theory the level of nucleus (as suggested in various places in the literature, notably in Shaw 1994), then a distinction can be made between two types of bimoraic syllables: one where Ν dominates both moras, the other where Ν dominates only the first mora. We can thus achieve the same effect as we did with the branching vs. non-branching mora: structurally, branching is just pushed up one notch (a desirable move, to the extent that the notion of branching Ν might be preferred to or judged less controversial than - that of branching μ). Kamprath (1989: 2) states that "there is no contrastive length in Romansch" (she means strictly Bergüner Romansch, i.e. Central Surmiran, not Romansch in general). This is too strong a statement, for two reasons: (1) it contradicts Thöni (1969: 16, 275), who gives minimal pairs such as: [er] ' also' vs. [e:r] 'field', [got] 'drop' vs. [go:t] 'forest', [bot] 'hill' vs. [boi] 'early', and (2) even in the absence of long vowels, in Central Surmiran, length is directly manifested by diphthongs: compare the systems given for Surmiran by Haiman & Benincà (1992: 31):

The Romansch syllable

16.

17.

549

Surmiran vocalic system under stress: 7 vowels: [i], [e], [e], [a], [o], [o], [u] 7 diphthongs: [ij], [ej], [ej], [aj], [aw], [ow], [uw] 2 triphthongs: [jow], [wej] Should we want to formalize a connection between stress and length, it would be imperative that we reattach G in (29) early, and furthermore, that we do it as in (32). But the stress rule in Surmiran is identical to that of Tujetsch Surselvan: stress the penultimate mora. Consequently, (29) or (32) are identical as far as stress is concerned. The relative place of Hardening within this derivation appears well justified on all counts. However, it would be less easy to pinpoint its absolute place within a lexical phonology model. The facts illustrated in (22) seem to indicate that it is not a late lexical process and that it belongs to the post-lexical component, but nothing in our analysis crucially depends on the validity of that perception.

References Andersen, H. 1988 Center and periphery: adoption, diffusion and spread. Trends in linguistics 37, 39-85. Caduff, L. 1952 Essai sur la phonétique du parler roman de la vallée de Tavetsch. Bern: A. Francke Verlag. Gartner, T. 1893 Rätoromanische Grammatik. Heilbronn: Henninger. Gauchat, L. 1906 Sprachgeschichte eines Alpenübergangs (Furka-Oberalp). Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen 117, 345-361. Gerster, W. 1927 Die Mundart von Montana (Wallis). Aarau: H.R. Sauerlander. Grisch, M. 1939 Die Mundart von Surmeir. Droz: Paris. Haiman, J. & P. Bénincà 1992 The Rhaeto-Romance languages. London: Routledge. Hajek, J. 1992 The hardening of nasalized glides in Bolognese. Certamen phonologicum 2. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier, 259-279. Hayes, B P. 1994 Metrical stress theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kamprath, C.K. 1985 Suprasegmental structures in a Raeto-Romansch dialect. PhD dissertation. Austin, Texas: The University of Texas. 1987 Morphological constraints on epenthesis and adjunction. Publications in the language sciences 28, 201-217. 1988 The syllabification of consonantal glides: post-peak distinctions. Proceedings of NELS 16. 1989 Moraic theory and syllable-internal structure. Paper presented at the LSA Meeting: Washington, DC.

550 Krier, F. 1985

Jean-Pierre Montreuil

La zone frontière du francoprovençal et de l'alémanique dans le Valais. Vols. 1 & 2. Forum Phoneticum 33, 2. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. Lombardi, L. 1995 Laryngeal neutralization and syllable wellformedness. Natural language and linguistic theory 13, 39-74. Lutta, C M. 1923 Der Dialekt von Bergün und seine Stellung innerhalb der Rätoromanischen Mundarten Graubündens. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 71. Halle: Niemeyer. Montreuil, J.-P. 1989 Non-moraic codas in Romance. Paper presented at the second colloquium on Romance linguistics. University of Texas at Austin, October 14, 1989. 1990 Length in Milanese. In D. Wanner & D. Kibbee (eds.), New analyses in Romance linguistics. Current issues in linguistic theory 69. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 32-48. 1990 On parasitic velars. Proceedings ofWECOL 20. University of Oregon. 1991 The diachronics of coda weight in Western Romance. Paper presented at the Ninth International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, August 14-19, 1991. 1995 The evolution of Romance prosody. Paper presented at the international phonology conference at Royaumont, France, June 20, 1995. Rice, K. 1992 On deriving sonority: a structural account. Phonology 9, 61-99. Shaw, P.A. 1994 The prosodie constituency of minor syllables. 12th West Coast Conference on formal linguistics. Stanford University: CSLI, 117-133. Thöni, G.P. 1969 Rumänisch Surmeir: grammatica per igl idiom surmiran. Coirà: Ligia Romontscha. Zee, D. 1995 Sonority constraints on syllable structure. Phonology 12, 85-129.

Part IV: Optimality Theory

18 Syllables and phonotactics in Irish Maire Ni Chiosáin

1. Introduction

The account of the phonotactics of Irish presented in this chapter deals primarily with the distributional patterning of consonants. The first section focuses on facts of syllable and word-initial onsets. Inventories of simple and complex onsets are provided, including the additional onsets found only in morphologically and syntactically conditioned initial consonant mutation environments. The additional clusters permitted in the latter environments are of interest since they generally reflect a relaxing of requirements on the sonority profile of onset clusters. The second section focuses on the patterning of post-vocalic consonants and includes an account of an epenthetic vowel that results from restrictions on the sonority profile of such clusters. The consonant system of Irish is given in (1). Labial Ρ Ρ' b b' f f v/w v' m m' 1 Γ r r'

Coronal t' t d d' s I η

η'

k g χ Y q

Dorsal k' g' x' Y'/j q'

Laryngeal

h

h'

A number of comments are in order concerning this set of consonants: (i) There is a 'palatalization' contrast in the consonants of Irish. The palatalized member of the opposition is - with the exception of s/J - represented as C' in order to circumvent questions of realization of this contrast which varies between palatalized/'plain' (co-produced) and 'plain'/velarized according to the vocalic environment. The reader is referred to the relevant dialect descriptions for details (e.g. de Bhaldraithe 1945 (on a western dialect); Ó Cuiv 1944, Breathnach 1947 (on southern dialects of Irish); Wagner 1959, Ó Dochartaigh 1987 (on northern dialects of Irish)) and to Ni Chiosáin & Padgett (1997) for an account of the variable realization. The transcriptions provided throughout the paper are thus broadly phonemic transcriptions, (ii) The dorsal and the palatalized

552

Mài re Ni Chiosàin

laryngeal fricatives occur only in certain morphologically conditioned environments, see section 2.1.2 below, (iii) The phonetic symbol [J"] is used in preference to s' to highlight the patterning of this member of the palatalized series in onsets, while labial and dorsal fricative-glide alternations are indicated by v/w and y'/j, respectively, (iv) The three major dialects of Irish differ with regard to the inventory of coronal nasals and laterals. The Old Irish tense/lax contrast in the sonorant consonants is retained to different degrees in the coronal nasals and laterals only in the northern and western dialects; this contrast is traditionally represented by e.g. Ν (tense) vs. η (lax). The northern dialects have the full inventory of contrasts, i.e. in both non-palatalized and palatalized coronal sonorants, while the western dialects have retained the contrast only in the palatalized series. However, the distribution of the different ('tense/lax') variants in the latter dialect is positionally determined (commented on in the relevant sections below) and the contrast given in the inventory in (1) is therefore limited to a non-palatalized/palatalized one. The contrast has been lost in the southern dialects. The original contrast is reflected in vowel length alternations preceding certain sonorant consonants in both the western and southern dialects which can be viewed as quantitative transfer; for discussion of these alternations see e.g. Ó Baoill (1979, 1980), Ni Chiosàin (1991), Cyran (1996).

2. Onsets 2.1. Simple onsets Not all of the consonants in (1) above occur in onset position - certain restrictions apply. Not all consonants, for example, occur word-initially, and not all consonants that occur word-initially do so in all morphological and syntactic environments - some are restricted to environments where an initial consonant mutation occurs (the terms non-mutation and mutation environments are used below). The facts concerning the distribution of simple onsets are set out in the following subsections. Examples throughout the paper are given in the following format: transcription - Irish orthographic form in italics - gloss. The forms cited generally reflect the pronunciation of western dialects. Where dialectal variation is relevant, it is noted.

2.1.1. Word-initial simple onsets in non-mutation environments The term non-mutation environment is used to refer to a (word-initial) environment in which no morphologically or syntactically conditioned consonant

Syllables andphonotactics

in Irish

553

mutation applies. The initial consonant mutations in Irish are Lenition - essentially 'weakening'/loss of stricture: spirantization of stops, loss of oral stricture or segmenthood in the case of fricatives, and Eclipsis - voicing of voiceless obstruents, nasalization of voiced stops. Word-initial onsets in non-mutation environments are given in (2). (2)

Word-initial onsets, non-mutation Labial Ρ b f m

Ρ' b' f m'

Coronal t t' d d' s J η η' 1 Γ r

Dorsal k k'

environments:1 Laryngeal

g g' h

Of the consonants missing from the inventory in (1), r1 occurs only word-internally - the secondary articulation distinction is thus neutralized in word-initial position, e.g. /ri:/, ri 'king', /ri/ rith 'run', /riv'/ roimh 'before'; compare with /fir'an1 foireann 'team, /kir'i/ cuireadh 'invitation'. The other consonants missing from the inventory in (1) occur word-initially only in mutation environments of lenition and eclipsis, see sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 below. Examples of simple word-initial onsets are given in (3). pa:r'k' páirc teocht t'o:xt bo bo: deo d'o: fòlli foil' Ji: m'o:n lo:n

si meon Ion

'field' 'warmth' 'cow' 'ever' 'yet'

p'a:n ko:ta b'o: gi:l foil'

hata 'fairy' 'attitude' ni: 'lunch' l'o:n

peann cota beo gaol feoil

'pen' 'coat' 'alive' 'relative' 'meat'

to:g k'o:l do: g'i:l si:

hata nao i león

'hat' 'nine' 'lion'

mo:n' mó i η 'turf n'i: ni neg prt

tog ceol dò giall saoi

'take' 'music' 'burning' 'jaw' 'a wise person'

554

Máire Ni Chiosáin

2.1.2. Word-initial simple onsets in lenition environments The consonant alternations in lenition environments are given in (4).2 (4)

Consonant alternations in lenition environments:

NON-LENITED LENITED

Labial

Coronal

Dorsal

ρ p'b b'f f f f v/w v' 0 0'

t t' d d' s J h h ' y γ'/j h h'

k k' g χ χ' γ

NON-LENITED

m

m'

LENITED

v/w

ν'

g' γ'/j

The consonant alternations in lenition environments increase the inventory of possible word-initial onsets, adding / χ χ' h' ν' γ γ'/j v/w /. However, the set of consonants that appears in word-initial position in lenition environments is in other ways clearly a reduced set, excluding as it does the oral stops, the coronal fricatives and the bilabial nasals.3 Representative examples of the alternations are given in (5). Note that the dorsal fricatives and the palatalized laryngeal fricative occur only in wordinitial position and only in lenition environments, as the lenited reflex of the voiced coronal and dorsal stops, and of the voiceless palatalized coronal obstruents, respectively.4 (5)

p/f

pa:r'k' / s(n) fa:r'k'

t/h

to:g / ho:g

k/x

kat / a (n) xat'

b'/v'

b'oila / mav'orb

d/Y

dalto / ma γ alta

m/ w

mails / 9 (η) wa:b

pài re / an pháirc 'field nom sg indef / nom sg def tóg / thôg 'take / took' cat / an chait 'cat nom sg indef / gen sg def beola / mo bheola 'lips / my lips' dalta / mo dhalta 'pupil / my pupil' mála / an mhála 'bag nom sg indef / gen sg def

2.1.3. Word-initial simple onsets in eclipsis environments The consonant alternations in eclipsis environments are given in (6).5

Syllables andphonotactics

(6)

Consonant alternations in eclipsis

ρ p' b b ' f

ECLIPSED

b b' m m ' v / w v'

555

environments:

Labial NON-ECLIPSED

in Irish

f

Coronal

Dorsal

tt'd

d'

k k' g g'

dd' nn'

g g ' η q'

The consonant alternations in eclipsis environments increase the set of possible word-initial onsets, adding /v' q q' w/, but reduce the set of word-initial consonants that appears in these environments by excluding the voiceless stops and the voiceless labial fricatives.6 It should be noted that - in contrast to lenition words undergoing eclipsis must always be preceded by phonological material. Representative examples of the alternations are given in (7).7 (7)

p/b

pa:r'k' / er'abair'k'

páirc / ar an bpairc

k/g

kat / er'ogat

cat / ar an gcat

b/m

bo: / er'amo:

bo / ar an mbó

g'/q'

g'a:l / er'oq'a:l

geall / ar an ngeall

f/w

faib / er'awaib

fadhb / ar an bhfadhb

'field / on the field' 'cat / on the cat' 'cow / on the cow' 'pledge / on the pledge' 'problem / on the problem'

2.2. Complex onsets 2.2.1. Word-initial CC onsets in non-mutation

environments

The set of possible complex onsets in non-mutation environments comprising two consonants is given in (8). Secondary articulations are in most cases shared by consonants in clusters. A notable exception to this generalization concerns the coronal fricatives /s J"/: (i) The palatalized member of this opposition does not occur preceding palatalized labials, rather the occurring clusters are /sp'/, /sm'/. (ii) Although /r'/ can occur in a palatalized onset cluster (see the palatalized obstruent-liquid clusters in (8)), /Jr'/ is not a possible onset cluster.8 (8)

Word-initial CC onsets in non-mutation

obstruent-liquid

environments:

pi p'l' pr pY bl b'l' br b'r' ti tT tr t'r' di d i' dr d'r' kl kT gr g'r' fl fT fr fr' si JT sr

556

Mài re Ni

Chiosàin

stop-nasal

tnkn k'n' gn g'n' generally η > r following dorsal obstruents in onsets in the western and northern dialects

s, J -stop

sp sp' st Jt' sk Jk1

s, J - nasal

sm sm' sn Jn'

nasal-liquid

mr

nasal-nasal

mn (in southern dialects only; mn > mr in the western and northern dialects)

Representative examples are given in (9). Where two forms are given for the same word, the first is the form found in western and northern dialects, the second is the form found in southern dialects. (9)

pTaik'i b'r'a: tnu: Jl'is sm'e:ra sp'a:l Jn'axte

pleidhce breá tnúth slios sméara speal sneachta

'idiot' 'fine' 'long for' 'slice' 'berries' 'scythe' 'snow'

b'l'a:n tlu: d'l'i: Jl'i: mra:/mna: gra:/gna: krap'i/knap'i

bleán tlúth dli sii mm gnáth cnaipe

'milking' 'poker' 'law' 'way' 'women' 'usual' 'button'

2.2.2. Word-initial CC omets in mutation environments The additional word-initial CC onsets allowed only in mutation environments are listed in (10). (Thus not included here are clusters that result from lenition or eclipsis but which can also occur in non-mutating environments, e.g. br/b'r' which can occur in non-mutation environments but which are also the result of eclipsing pr/p'r')· These, for the most part, comprise the clusters in (8) with lenition of the initial consonant. The increased inventory generally reflects a relaxing of requirements on the sonority profile of onset clusters, most notable in the reduction of sonority distance in the nasal-liquid and nasal-nasal clusters that occur in eclipsis environments.

Syllables andphonotactics in Irish

557

(10) CC onsets that occur word-initially only in mutation environments: Lenition: Fricative/glide-liquid:

vl/wl vT wr/vr v'r' xl χ ΐ xr x'r' yl yr jl' jr'

which result from leniting:

bl/ml b'lVm'l' br/mr b'rVm'r' kl kT kr k'r' dl/gl dr/gr d'l'/g'l' d'r'/g'r1

Fricative/glide-nasal :

xn x'n' γη jn1

which result from leniting:

kn k'n' gn g'n' In those dialects in which η > r when preceded in an onset by a dorsal obstruent, these clusters are realized as xr, x'r' etc.

h -liquid/nasal:

hn

which result from leniting: Eclipsis: Nasal-liquid:

hn' hi

hr

hr'

sn/tnjn' tl/sl tl'/JT tr/sr frinì m'l' (mr) m'r' nl n'l' nr n'r' ql qT qr q'r'

which result from eclipsing: bl b'l' Nasal-nasal:

hi'

br b'r1 d'I d'l' dr d'r' gl g'l' gr g'r'

qn q'n'

which result from eclipsing: gn g'n' Representative examples are given in (11). (11) Lenition: bias / vlas b'r'ij / v'r'ij k'l'axt / x'l'axt krom / xrom g'r'ama / jr'ama g'n'i:wo / jn'iiwa sna:v / hna:v Jl'auna / hl'auna srix' / hrix'

blas/bhlas bris/bhris cleacht/chleacht crom/chrom greamaigh/ghreamaigh gníomhaigh/ghníomaigh snámh/shnámh sleamhnaigh/shleamhnaigh sroich/shroich

'taste/tasted' 'break/broke' 'practice/practiced' 'bend/bent' 'stick/stuck' 'act/acted' 'swim/swam' 'slip/slipped' 'reach/reached'

558

Maire Ni Chiosàin Eclipsis: b'r'is' / a m'r'istia: g'l'e:s: / a q'l'e:sha: g'r'ad / 9 q'r'adha: g'n'irw / a q'n'i:wo:ha:

bris/an mbrisfeà 'break/would you break (Q-prt VERB-cond-2sg)' gléas/an ngléasfeà 'dress/would you dress' gread/an ngreadfà 'leave/would you leave' gníomhaigh/an ngíomhófá 'act/would you act'

2.2.3. Word-initial CCC onsets Word-initial onset clusters containing three consonants (the maximum permitted in onset position) are listed in (12). (12) Word-initial CCC onsets:9 s, J -stop-liquid

spi spT spr sp'r' str Jt'r' ski JkT skr Jk'r'

Representative examples are given in (13). (13) splaqk spri: Jt'r'i:k Jk'r'ad

spiane spraoi strioc scread

'flash' 'fun' 'streak' 'scream'

spT a x sp'r'ag JkTuixas

spleách spreag scliúchas

'dependent' 'inspire' 'rumpus'

The clusters in (12) are unaltered in mutation environments. This holds also of /s JV + stop and /s/ + labial nasal clusters (see (8)). Initial coronal fricatives are not affected by eclipsis in any case. The failure of lenition, on the other hand, to apply to these clusters can be attributed to the fact that the sonority profile of the clusters that would result from lenition, e.g. /h/ + stop (+liquid), is not tolerated.

3. Post-vocalic consonant clusters Most of the consonant clusters in (8) and (10) can occur word-internally, though no longer necessarily exclusively as onsets. Word-internal branching onsets are permitted; however, when preceded by a short stressed vowel, the

Syllables andphonotactics

in Irish

559

initial consonant in certain clusters may form the coda of the preceding syllable or be perceived as ambisyllabic. Relevant clusters include /gn, kn, g'n', k'n', qr, q'r'/10, e.g. /ag'.n'i, a(g')n'i/ aigne 'mind', /mak.nas, ma(k)nas/ macnas 'playfulness' ( ν' LälNS Lä:n *n'> ν ' 'full' (comp.) blo-an v1o-ìn' *n > Ν' 'to milk' (prêt.) L'eina 'shirt' L'eiN'ten (pi) *n > Ν' b. Lateral (non-diphthongization before surface-tense laterals) aLt 'knuckle' UL t' *1, Γ > L, L' (gen.) sgOLtay 'to split' SgYL't' (prêt.) *1, Γ > L, L' c. Lateral (morphological processes kui:L 'narrow' XUI.1' kuirl'a 3Lk ul'k' 'evil' baLtfg bui'Mg' 'bellows'

involving palatalization) (gen.m.) *1 > L (comp.) *1 > L (gen.) (gen.) *1> L

d. Rhotic (morphological processes involving palatalization) fnrgaRd 'to answer' rvgaö' (prêt.) *r> r taxoRd *r> r 'to happen' haxaö' (prêt.) So, in the cases of [Lp] appearing in Type A clusters, and in fact also in [lIc] in (30b), and of course the [Lt] and [ i / t ] in (33b), the surface-tense laterals are in fact underlyingly lax, as can be seen from the fact that diphthongization does not take place, as it does with their underlying tense congeners. There has been a partial surface replacement of lax sonorants by tense sonorants. The case in (31) where svarabhakti takes place in a homorganic environment is isolated. In fact, this is a Norse loan, from which a labial fricative has been lost subsequent to its incorporation in Gaelic, as the orthography tells us. (34) Leurbost taras'g'ar

Orthography

Old Norse

toirbhsgear

torfskeri (lit. 'turf-shear')

'peat-iron'

Temes (1973) supplies a partially similar case from Applecross: (35) Applecross

Orthography

toRJs'g'in ~ toirsgian < toirbh-sgian 'peat-knife' tDRJs'g'an This makes it clear that what we are dealing with here is a frozen compound structure. The Leurbost form can perhaps be represented underlyingly as /tarvs'g'ar/, since liquid-/v/ clusters exhibit /ν ~ 0/ alternations:

Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure

(36)

Final/v/ marov marbh faLa(v) falbh

V-suffix mara-ay marbhadh faua-u falbhaibh

C-subj. clitic vara mi mharbh mi yaLtf mi dh 'flialbh mi

V-subj. clitic varov a mharbh e yaLov a dh'flialbh e

599

'dead, die' 'go'

Before a C-initial subject clitic M is not realized. This seems to be the most relevant environment in connection with (34). What causes svarabhakti in Type Β clusters after short vowels? Firstly let us return to my qualification of Type A clusters above. Type A clusters are: i) clusters exhibiting nasal assimilation, i.e. involving a lax nasal. ii) clusters involving a lax liquid combined with a simplex stop iii) clusters involving a liquid with the coronals /s, η, V. iv) clusters of lax liquids plus fhJ. The cases under (i) involve linked structures, sharing Place. The cases under (ii) involve combinations of the simplest liquids with the simplest obstruents. The cases under (iii) involve coronal second consonants - these never involve epenthesis. Similarly, in case (iv) the placeless /h/ never causes epenthesis. When do we find Type Β behavior? Type Β clusters are: i) clusters involving a (coronal) sonorant followed by a non-coronal obstruent ii) clusters involving a (coronal) sonorant followed by a non-coronal sonorant iii) clusters involving a labial nasal followed by a coronal obstruent iv) clusters involving a labial nasal followed by a (coronal) sonorant This characterization ignores the surface factors filtered out in the discussion in the previous section.

5. Syncope

Stems of the shape of (19c), whose apparent disyllabicity is due to the presence of a svarabhakti vowel, must be distinguished from true disyllables of the type in (37). (37) CVCVC When such a structure acquires a vowel-initial inflectional suffix, there are two types of result, depending on the manners of articulation of the last two consonants.

600

Nerval Smith

(38) CVCC + VC

fiakii/

+ an > fiakLan

flaclan

'teeth'

snàthadan

'needles'

with syncope, and (39) CVCVC + VC SNäihad + an > sNâ:hadan without syncope. If both the consonants concerned are obstruents, as in (39), no syncope will take place. Basically, under all other circumstances syncope will take place. These include obstruent-sonorant cases like in (38), as well as sonorant-obstruent cases, sonorant-sonorant cases, and cases involving hiatus plus a final sonorant. I will ignore the last two types as being of minor importance. I give a number of examples of the other two types. The sonorant-obstruent cases I postpone until the next section, as these also involve svarabhakti. Note that the length of the accented vowel does not affect matters: obstruent-•sonorant tobaô' tobair tax3R-d tachairt iobair i:b9R fVsgal ' fosgail koKxal' caochail fiakii/ flacail

+ + + + +

ax i 9Y 9Y ay + an

> > > > > >

tobrax tobrach taxri tachraidh i.'brey iobradh fVsgLay fosgladh kunxLay caochladh fiakLan flaclan

'well (gen.sg.)' 'happen (ind.fut.)' 'sacrifice (inf.)' 'open (inf.)' 'die (inf.)' 'tooth (pi.)'

The second type is illustrated in (44) in section 6. Note that the variety of unstressed vowels is extremely limited. To all intents and purposes only [i, u, a, a, a] occur outside cases of hiatus where repetition of the stressed vowel is the rule. In the closed syllables we are interested in here, the situation allows a reduction to a contrast between /a/ (with [o] as a variant following labials and the velarized /R/) and hi, which appears in general as [i] preceding palatalized consonants, [u] is possibly also a variant of hi following labials and IR/. In all probability then, we have only one basic opposition among non-initial vowels between underlying /a/ and hi. Syllables with /a/ are never subject to syncope, while those with hi are. A classical problem thus arises with the latter category. A stem CVCaL will appear in this form in final position, and before C-initial inflectional suffixes; and as CVCL- before V-initial inflectional suffixes. Is the underlying root CVCaL or CVCL? Inasmuch as the syncopatable vowel appears to be forecastable, one might prefer the latter, in which case of course there would strictly speaking be no real question of syncope, but rather of epenthesis. An argument to be

Leurbost

Gaelic

syllable

structure

601

considered here is that there are apparently exceptional items which do not undergo syncope when it would be expected. This in itself is evidence for an underlying structure CVCVL. Anyway we know already that 'epenthesis' (of a segment, not a nucleus - this is already structurally present in the recursive syllable) in the dialect of Leurbost gives rise to svarabhakti vowels marked by their tonal quality. Epenthesis only occurs in certain sonorant-obstruent combinations. Here the vowel-zero alternations involve a much larger set of combinations of consonants, and lack the tonal characteristics of epenthetic vowels. (41) Exceptional cases of obstruent-sonorant kus'ii/ cuisil + s n > kus'ii/an cuislean frvgaR-d freagairt + i > f r r g a ö ' i freagraidh

'vein

(pi.)'

'answer (ind.fut.)'

Note that the orthography of Scottish Gaelic indicates that these words would be normally expected to have syncope. The fact that they do not in this dialect is exceptional. This requires to be marked in the lexicon. Obviously there can be no question of epenthesis (of a segment) here. It could also be argued that no consistent distinction should be made between obstruent-obstruent cases and those in which one of the two consonants is a sonorant. We find the following cases: (42) a. CVCoVCo CVCQCO b. CVCoVCs •CVCqCS c. CVCsVCo CVCsCo d. CVCsVCs CVCsCs

CVCoVCo+VC CVCoCo+VC CVCoCs+VC

Syncope/No epenthesis

CVC s Co+VC CVCsCo+VC CVCsCs+VC CVCsCs+VC

This distribution of types indicates fairly clearly that (despite the lack of CVCoCs structures due to sonority requirements) syncope has to be assumed in CVCoCs+VC rather than epenthesis in CVC0VCS. This is in addition to the arguments already provided. There are also certain suffixes which never cause epenthesis, such as the adjective-forming suffix -ach /-zxJ. (43)

boö'oN fiö'oN sasiN'

boirionn firionn Sasuinn

+ ax

>

boö'aNox

+

ax

>

fiö'aNax

+

ax

>

sasaNax

boirionnach flrionnach Sasunnach

'woman' 'man' 'Englishman'

602

Nerval Smith

6. Syncope and svarabhakti

The regular combination of syncope and svarabhakti is a hitherto unexplained feature of Scottish Gaelic phonology. On the face of it, it seems a rather irrational combination of events. Why delete a vowel only to insert one again? In a non-derivational model like OT (in the sense of a model lacking rule order) this becomes even less comprehensible. Now in effect, we delete and insert a vowel simultaneously. Such a procedure is also completely incomprehensible in terms of the Theory of Constraints and Repair Strategies (Paradis 1988a, 1988b) and similar approaches making use of repair strategies. The only way to understand what is happening here is to assume that syncope reduces the basic number of syllables, and that svarabhakti involves not the creation of a new external syllable but rather an internal recursive one. The obvious question is of course which syllable the recursive syllable belongs to the first or the second. (44)

sonorant-obstruent + u > vai.úrxu balach balachaibh bai.ax 'boy (voc.pl.)' k'äNix' ceannaich + 9S > x'àNôx'as cheannaicheas 'buy (rei.)' aithnichidh anix' aithnich + i > an αχ'i 'recognize (ind.fiit.)' tarruing + i > taRög'i tarruingidh taftig' 'pull (ind.fiit.)' + 9n> taRag'an tairngean taRog tarrang 'nail (pl.)' + i > ful'wg'i fuilngidh fulang 'suffer (ind.fiit.)' fuL9g

Note that this syncopation introduces new combinations of consonants around a svarabhakti vowel that do not naturally occur in non-derived structures, such as combinations differing in palatality (superficially in some cases and truly in others), and various non-homorganic nasal-consonant combinations. There are actually three obvious structural possibilities for having recursive syllables in these cases: (45) a. [va [ ω χ ] ] [u] b. [va] [[Lax] u] c. [va [La]] [xu] The first option is unlikely because it involves an onsetless syllable. The second seems unlikely, too. Svarabhakti appears to be a phenomenon of accented syllables. The third option has the advantage that it involves no unexpected syllable types. Recursive syllables lacking codas have been illustrated already. And the unstressed syllables do not lack onsets.

Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure

603

A further possibility is really just a variation on the theme of (45c), i.e. that the /x/ is ambisyllabic rather than belonging solely to the second syllable. I will ignore this possibility, as there is no data that would seem to be relevant to the issue. This solution gains direct support from the following facts from the Islay dialect (Holmer 1938). There we also find the same syncope plus svarabhakti as we do in Leurbost, with the added evidence of the glottal stop (see 14a,b). (46) a. Disyllable t'ui?ram tioram b. Syncopated t'uirama Horma

'dry' 'drier'

Note that the distribution of the glottal stop in this case is parallelled by other cases of syncope where the syncopated structure has a heavy first syllable: Disyllable u?ul go?ur do?rost u:bn gourix'an dors an

ubhal gobhar doruis ubhlan gobhraichean 'doirsean,32

'apple' 'goat' 'door' 'apples' 'goats' 'doors'

I would claim that the syllable structures of (46a,b) are as follows: (48) a. [t h jtu?] [ram] b. [t h jiu [ra]] [ma] Note that, as I observed above, we have clear evidence that Irl is an onset in (48a), since we know that /?/ only appears when an accented syllable with a short vowel would otherwise have no coda, or, i.e., be monomoraic. Note that the first syllable in (48b) is not open - its coda is formed by the recursive syllable. Because of the presence of the epenthetic vowel in (48b), this syllable is also bimoraic. We have evidence that /r/ in the second form cannot be an ordinary onset - we would expect a glottal stop in that case. The attentive reader will now point out that /r/ is an onset in an open syllable - but one that is not closed by a glottal stop. However, this syllable is an unstressed syllable, and unstressed syllables may be open. Compare the final syllable in tiorma.

604

Norval Smith

7. Vowel lengthening before 'tense' sonorants A very striking alternation found in some Gaelic dialects (including Leurbost) involves short vowels preceding 'tense' II, L', N', N, m, m' 3/. When these two segments are tautosyllabic the vowel is diphthongized, according to a regular pattern. (49) auL ~ 3LV

käüm

~ kàma

'crooked (simplex + comp.)'

DUL

~

3LV

x5üm

~ kümal

'hold (prêt. + inf.)'

3UL

~

ULV

R5üm

~ Rumoran

'room (sg. + pi.)'

xaÍL'

~ kaL'i

'lose (prêt. + fut.)'

bëïN'

~ bèN9

'mountain (nom. + gen.)'

aii/ ~ ai/V eii/ ~ ei/V eii/ ~ ii/V T I L ' ~ TI/V

tëïN' ~ tÌN'a kvÌL't'an ~ kvi/a

TÍL' ~

klrÌN'd'an ~ kLÙIN'i

UIL'V

'ill (simplex + comp.)' 'wood (pl. + sg.)' 'hear (inf. + fut.)'

(L here stands for II, N, or m/) There is another alternation involving IRI preceded by /a/. In syllable-final position the /a/ is lengthened. This appears to be found in all Scottish Gaelic dialects, unlike the alternation illustrated in (49), and is, as is stated, restricted to /a/ (also hi in some dialects). Because of the restricted nature of this alternation, I will not attempt to account for it here.

7.1. Historical background and synchronic syllable structure The tense sonorants descend historically from old geminate sonorants. However, this aspect has been totally lost in the Leurbost dialect phonetics, in the sense that these sounds are not any longer than the so-called 'lax' sonorants. It can be assumed, however, that the so-called tense sonorants still represent heavy structures in some sense. They fit easily into onsets, as can be seen from the cases in which they are intervocalic. However, when they are tautosyllabic with the preceding vowel, the nucleus is lengthened with a mora. In the case of /m, m', N, n', l, l'/, the mora in question is a vocalic glide agreeing with the velarity or palatality of the tense sonorant. Imi is preceded either by /iJ or /u/ depending on its morphophonemic status, parallel either with /L\ Ν 7 or /L, Ν/. The presence of the /u/-glide will be accounted for later on.

Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure

605

Clearly these sonorants can only be located in the coda. There are presumably already two vocalic elements in the nucleus. However, they also have a toehold in the nucleus in that the glide is a reflection of the sonorant. In more conservative dialects (with respect to this feature at least) like the dialect of East (Highland) Perthshire (O Murchú 1989), and that of Islay (Holmer 1938) what we find following short vowels in the case of the 'tense' sonorants in coda position is a short vowel followed by a long sonorant. In more innovative dialects, we find either a long vowel or a diphthong preceding a short sonorant. Here I illustrate the diphthongal reflex from Leurbost, and the long vowel reflex from Cois Fhairrge Irish (de Bhaldraithe 1945): (50) E Perthshire34 am: drrim: kam: k'an: t'an:

Islay em:

Leurbost äüm

Cois Fhairrge a:m am

'time'

drim: kern: k en: t en:

dirîra käüm k'äÜN t'äÜN

dri:m' ka:m k'a:N t'arN

'back' 'crooked' 'head' 'tight'

dru im cam ceann team

How are we to regard the E. Perthshire and Islay tense sonorants? 35 In Islay the tense sonorants are also long intervocalically, enabling us to assign the first half to the coda of the accented syllable, and the second half to the onset of the second syllable. We find the following distribution of final vowels and sonorants in E. Perthshire (using IV to represent all the sonorants): (51) a. VI b. V:1 c. VI:

(= Leurbost VI) (= Leurbost V:L) (= Leurbost VUL)

In the first case, I assume that both the short vowel and the liquid are to be situated in the nucleus and coda respectively. I consider the second case to consist of a long vowel nucleus and a sonorant coda. This is uncontroversial. How about the third case? I will claim that the nucleus consists of a short vowel and a sonorant, followed by a sonorant coda. Note that I proceed from the axiom that the coda can only consist of a singleton consonant (cf. (3b)).

606

Nerval Smith

(52)

(a)

N"

Λ

(b)

R N'

N"

/I

(c)

Ν

Λ

R Ν'

R N'

Κ Κ RR

Κ Κ RR

N R

Ν"

N R

R k a n coin 'dogs'

Ν R k' ìn' cinn 'heads'

g ω: gaol 'love'

To understand this fully, we have to look at things slightly more carefully: (53)

N"

(a)

XI R N' Ν N R I R c

I o r coin 'dogs'

Ν" /I R Ν' Κ Ν R Κ RR

Ν" /I R Ν' Ν Ν R Κ RR

g

k'

(b)

V

ω gaol 'love'

(c)

IN i Ν cinn 'heads'

Note that this solution explains a number of distributional facts. If the only consonants occurring in nuclei are sonorants, then it is obvious that the occurrence of tautosyllabic long sonorants but no other tautosyllabic long consonants can be explained. This will only be possible following short vowels, however. What is the relevance of this for the Leurbost data? Can we assume the same syllable structures in the Leurbost surface forms? In other words, do we have:

Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure

(54)

(a)

Λ

N" / I R N' Ν N R

soiLix'an > uxan

leabhraichean sabhlaichean ùbhlan

' b o o k (pi.)' 'barn (pi.)' 'apple (pi.)'

The schwa must be interpreted as organic in these cases. Yet another argument against the underlying cluster interpretation of syncope-structures is that indubitably underlying clusters generally agree in palatality, unless one of the elements is a labial. The surface clusters (potentially) arising from syncope also tend to agree in palatality. However, the pairs of consonants separated by schwa often disagree in this regard, so that the direction of neutralization can be established as proceeding from unsyncopated to syncopated. (76) karid'

caraid

+ an

> kaiRdan

càirdean

'friend (pi.)'

It is important to point out that only structures with underlying schwa display syncope, and also that syncope does not take place between two obstruents. (77) CVCVC + VC sNä:had + an > SNä:hadan

snàthadan

'needle (pl.)'

618

Norval Smith

An additional constraint is required to handle this case. (78) "IDENTMANNER: NO sequences of non-syllabics with identical manners are allowed. Obstruent-obstruent cases will not undergo syncope, and sonorant-sonorant cases will undergo epenthesis. (79) SNäihad + an/ 53 'needle (pi.)'

•IDENTMAN

*OVERWT

PARSE-μ

•RECURSION

MAX-IO

*

[sNä:][ho][don] !»

[sNä:h][dan]

*

*

Syncope is frequently seen as a consequence of the operation of a WEIGHT-TOSTRESS constraint. Support for the importance of WEIGHT-TO-STRESS in Leurbost Gaelic might be claimed to be observed in the fact that lexical monosyllables with final short vowels get a final caducous ña!. This does not happen to long open syllables or diphthongs. Compare the following items: (80) a. kroh duh b. ku: kö'ia

crodh dubh cù crè

'cattle' 'black' 'dog' 'clay'

The first group of words - originally with a closed syllable - has a lexical representation with a short vowel rhyme. The final Ihl is absent in inflected forms of these words, which either involve a complex rhyme or a second syllable.54 (81)

kruij yuijs

cruidh dhuibhe

'cattle (pi.)' 'black (gen.sg.fem.)'

However, this effect is only visible at the word-level, and thus must be seen as a word-minimality effect. Word-internal rhymes may consist of short vowels only - cf. the examples in (75) above.

8.3. Syncope and svarabhakti It is not the case that all structures of the form CVLaC display both syncope and svarabhakti when conjoined with a V-initial inflectional suffix. Example (82) is

Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure

619

a case in point. If C2 is a coronal then no svarabhakti is found unless L is a labial. By chance, all the examples of this type found in Oftedal are somewhat irregular, e.g.: (82) daros

do rus

+ an

>

doRsan

dorsan 'door (pi.)'

Most cases of the type CVLsC, however, involve different places of articulation, and therefore mostly display vowel epenthesis in addition to syncope. Compare the following tableau: (83) /vai.ax + u/ 55 'boy (voc.pl.)' [va][L3][xu]

PARSE-μ

SONVSEP [PWD|

•RECURSION

DEP-IO

MAX-IO

!*

[vai.][xu]

1* •

® [va[i.a]][xu] [va[L]][xu]

*

!*

*

*

* *

8.4. Vowel lengthening before 'tense' sonorants Before addressing in detail the subject of vowel 'lengthening' phenomena of various types that occur preceding 'tense' sonorants, I will attempt to provide a more or less complete set of constraints governing the manner types that are possible in the rhyme. This will prove to be useful. There is evidence from the phonological acquisition of Dutch that, in that language, rhymes comprising a short vowel plus a sonorant are nuclear structures, rather than rhymes involving a coda consonant (Fikkert 1994). So this type of structure has to be allowed for. Clearly, constraints are required to restrict the segmental content of the nucleus. A number of possible candidates come to mind: (84) NUCLEUSSONORANT: NUCLEUSCONTINUANT:

NUCLEUSVOCALIC:

The segments in the nucleus are sonorant. The segments in the nucleus are continuant. The segments in the nucleus are vocalic.

All three 'features' demanded of nuclei correspond to interpretations of the feature [V] in the account of segmental structure found in Smith (1998). This, I

620

Norval Smith

assume, is not accidental. The most unmarked nuclei satisfy all three constraints. Fikkert (as well as others) also demonstrates that the first codas to appear are fricatives. The content of the coda requires being constrained also. A first approximation might appear to be: (85)

CODAOBSTRUENT: CODACONTINUANT: CODACONSONANT:

The segment in the coda is an obstruent. The segment in the coda is a continuant. The segment in the coda is a consonant.

The coda-constraint CODACONTINUANT is a reflection, not only of what first appears in the codas of child-language, but also of the evidence for 'weakening' or lenition in syllable-final position. Compare, for example, the change in the English dialect of Liverpool of final Dd to a uvular fricative (i.e. back is [bax]). The other two constraints demand that 'features' be present in the coda that correspond to two interpretative aspects of the feature [C] in the account of segmental structure in Smith (1998). The third prototypical aspect of [C] - noncontinuance - is however absent. It is the precise opposite of what is suggested by the coda-constraint CODACONTINUANT. This suggests a possible revision of coda constraints to: (86)

CODAOBSTRUENT: CODANONCONTINUANT: CODACONSONANT:

The segment in the coda is an obstruent. The segment in the coda is a non-continuant. The segment in the coda is a consonant.

The coda constraints now strive for the presence of a maximum of consonantal aspects, in order to achieve the maximum contrast with a prototypical nuclear segment (for this notion of maximal contrast in binary constituents see also Bolognesi (1998)). How do we then account for the weakening often observed in codas. I suggest this is an aspect of the higher order constituent rhyme as an aspect of the contrast between onsets and rhymes. (87) RHYMECONTINUANT:

Segments in rhymes are continuants.

As far as codas are concerned there will be a potential conflict between CODANONCONTINUANT and RHYMECONTINUANT. This seems to be an accurate description of the state of affairs. In addition to restricting the types of manner occurring within rhymes, we also require restrictions to be put on the length of elements in the rhyme. For instance, it has often been stated either that rhymes have to be bimoraic, or that accented rhymes have to be bimoraic. These are constraints that are not abso-

Leurbost

Gaelic syllable

structure

621

lutely followed in Leurbost Gaelic, however (see the discussion at the end of the preceding section). One constraint that is always obeyed is the following: (88)

The nucleus is maximally binary.

NUCLEUSBINARYMAXIMUM:

With this battery of constraints I will now turn to the question at issue vowel 'lengthening' preceding 'tense' sonorants. Let us recall the facts that have to be explained: auL

~ ELY

käüm

~ kâma

'crooked (simplex + comp.)'

OUL

~ DLV

x5üm

~ kùmal

' h o l d (prêt. + inf.)'

DUL

~ ULV

RDÜm

~ RÛmaNan

'room (sg. + pi.)'

aii/ ~ ai/V eil/ ~ ei/V eil/ ~ Î L ' V

xaiL'

~

kaL'i

' l o s e (prêt. + f u t . ) '

bêÎN'

~

bëN'a

'mountain (nom. + gen.)'

tÏN'a

têïN'

~

TIL/

~ TL'V

krii/t'an

TIL'

~ Uli/V

klïïN'd'an

~ kvL3 ~ knîïN'i

'ill ( s i m p l e x + c o m p . ) ' ' w o o d (pl. + s g . ) ' 'hear (inf. + f u t . ) ' (L h e r e s t a n d s f o r /L, N, o r m / )

I have argued for syllable structures of the following type in Leurbost, contrasting with the more conservative East Perthshire dialect. (90) (a)

(b)

k

i

i

i

k

i

e

i

/k'iN':/

/k'ëïN'/

E. Perthshire: cinn

Leurbost: cinn

I assume the input here to be / k ' i N ' / without explicit length. I also assume the existence of a constraint TENSESONORANTLONG which ensures that, all other

Norval Smith

622

things being equal, tense sonorants are long in all environments in which this is possible. There are three relevant environments: (91) a. Syllable-initial: Here length is excluded - there is only one onset position. b. Syllable-final: Here length is possible following a short vowel only, in languages which restrict the nucleus to two segments. One portion of the tense sonorant will be in the nucleus, and the other occupies the single coda position. c. Inter-syllabic: Here length is possible - the tense sonorant is spread over successive coda and onset positions. Further constraints that are potentially of relevance here are an alignment constraint linking syllable margins to segmental margins: AL(SEGSYLL) (this will exclude cases like the third one), and a constraint on geminates, which will exclude both the second and the third cases. (92) /k'iN'/ cinn

'heads'

NUCBINMAX

k'tÍN'jNucLEUS [k'LN'] k'i[N']C0DA

*!

[k'ÏN]

«®>k'[ëï]N[N']c56

[k'iN':]

AL(SEGSYLL)

TNSSONLONG * *!

k [ÌN']N[N ]C [k'iN':] k'[iN':]N

NucVoc

*! *!

*

[ k W ]

The East Perthshire solution is impossible in this dialect because of high-ranked The length of the final sonorant is realized as a glide + sonorant sequence. It is possible then to realize the glide part within the nucleus without violating NUCVOC. The AL(SEGSYLL) constraint, preventing segments from overlapping syllable boundaries, will prevent the same resolution of the intervocalic case, as illustrated in (93). NUCVOC.

Leurbost Gaelic syllable structure

623

(93) /kaL'i/

caillidh

NUCBINMAX

NucVoc

AL(SEGSYLL)

TNSSONLONG

'will lose' *

Sn [±round] —. [1] ; η = stem-final S. A further extension of the PRC is possible, covering a few more cases of rounding dissimilation in native words of more than two syllables, this time when the penultimate syllable of a stem contains I'll. In this case, the stem-final vowel is rounded in the plural, even when the stem is [-back]-harmonic. This is illustrated in (25). (25) Behavior of stems where S2 contains /if S2 contains /i/: a/oi ä/öi alternation etsintä kahvila, kynttilä lukija, juoksija

S¡ does not contain ///: a/i a/i alternation isäntä, emäntä jumala, jäkälä laulaja, tupakoija

In these cases, the A/Oi alternation is conditioned by /i/ in a preceding syllable. This provides more evidence that the PRC applies only to certain structures and is therefore, in a declarative treatment, best handled polysystemically. The structural description for the plural stems of these trisyllabic words is given in (26) below. This evidence does not, however, provide conclusive evidence for the overall generality of the PRC, since other explanations of the data may be possible (see Karlsson 1982: 34If.), involving stem-final consonants and the lexicalization of plural stems.

A syllable-level feature in Finnish

669

(26) Structural description for trisyllabic stems shown in (25): W

[±back]

F

S I [-round][l]

S ^ [+round][2]

R

R

Ν

Ν

i [-low] [+hi] [1]

Κ [-hi] [+hi] [2] [-low] [-round]

4. Conclusions

In this chapter, I have argued that Finnish provides evidence for treating the feature [±round] as a property of the syllable as a whole. This is in line with the Firthian notion that systems of phonological contrast are not necessarily placed at terminal nodes of hierarchical structure, but may have a domain over larger pieces of structure. My analysis, while using conventional elements of structure such as the syllable, foot and word, differs from the commonly accepted practice of treating phonological features as spreading across adjacent stretches of material ordered on a melodic tier, to which all autosegmental material must associate. Instead, it treats all nodes in structure as potential places of contrast. Finnish rounding dissimilation also provides evidence for a polysystemic analysis that refers to phonological and morphosyntactic information. While the formal ramifications of this are not explored in this paper, the analysis is compatible with constraint maps of the sort proposed by Scobbie et al. (1996). By limiting the application of constraints to particular linguistic structures, it is possible to provide accounts of phenomena, such as rounding dissimilation, which are based on representations and constraints on those representations.

670

Richard Ogden

Acknowledgments My thanks to Gill Atkins, Steven Bird, Paul Carter, John Local, Ros Temple, and an anonymous reviewer for their help in improving this chapter and earlier versions of it. Any remaining faults are my own.

Notes 1.

2.

3. 4.

5.

The credit for this almost certainly belongs to Hjelmslev (1937), who, in a paper at the Phonetics Congress in 1935, proposed an analysis of aspects of Danish and English which distinguishes prosodies and phonematic units (Abercrombie 1991: 8). Finnish orthography is used for convenience. = [a], = [a], = [y], = [0]. Other letters of the orthographic system correspond to IPA symbols, except that stands for [η] before velars, and assimilates to the same place of articulation as the following consonant when word-final; and stands for a variety of sounds including [d r 1], See Ogden (1996) for further details of Finnish phonetics. Double letters represent long sounds. Note however that M assimilates to the same place of articulation as a subsequent C. This is a more general property of syllable joins. However, in loan words such as [te:], tea the exponents are different. Arguments for treating loans as forming a separate phonological system are given in Henderson (1951) and Itô & Mester (1995). I have used A as a shorthand for a [+low] vowel unspecified for [±back].

References Abercrombie, D. 1991 Fifty years in phonetics. Edinburgh: University Press. Anderson, S R. 1985 Phonology in the twentieth century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bach, E. & D. Wheeler 1981 Montague phonology: a first approximation. University of Massachusetts occasional papers in linguistics 7, 27-45. Bazell, CE., J.C. Catford, M.A.K. Halliday & R.H. Robins (eds.) 1966 In memory of J.R. Firth. London: Longman. Bendor-Samuel, J.T. 1960 Some problems of segmentation in the phonological analysis of Terena. Word 16, 348-355 [reprinted in Palmer (1970), 214-221], Bird, S. 1990 Constraint-based phonology. PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh. 1995 Computational phonology: a constraint-based approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bird, S. & E. Klein 1994 Phonological analysis in typed feature systems. Computational linguistics 20, 455-491.

A syllable-level feature in Finnish

Blevins, J. 1995 Broe, M. 1991

The syllable in phonological theory. In J. Goldsmith (ed.), The handbook phonological theory. Oxford: Blackwell, 206-244.

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of

A unification-based approach to prosodie analysis. Edinburgh working papers in cognitive science 7, 27-44. Coleman, J.S. 1992 The phonetic interpretation of headed phonological structures containing overlapping constituents. Phonology 9, 1-44. 1995 Declarative lexical phonology. In J. Durand & F. Katamba (eds), Frontiers of phonology. London: Longmans, 333-382. Firth, J R. 1948 Sounds and prosodies. [Reprinted in Palmer (1970), 1-26], Firth, J R. & B.B. Rogers 1937 The structure of the Chinese monosyllable in a Hunanese dialect (Changsha). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies VIII 4, 1055-1074. Fudge, E. 1969 Syllables. Journal of linguistics 5, 253-286. 1987 Branching structure within the syllable. Journal of linguistics 23, 359-377. Gazdar, G., E. Klein, G. Pullum & I. Sag 1985 Generalised phrase structure grammar. Oxford: Blackwell. Goldsmith, J. 1990 Autosegmental and metrical phonology. Oxford: Blackwell. 1992 A note on the genealogy of research tradition in modern phonology. Journal of linguistics 28, 149-63. Henderson, E.J.A. 1949 Prosodies in Siamese. Asia major I, 189-215. [Reprinted in Palmer (1970), 2753], 1951 The phonology of loanwords in some south-east Asian languages. Transactions of the philological society, 131-158. [Reprinted in Palmer ( 1970), 54-81 ]. Hjelmslev, L. 1937 On the principles of phonematics. Proceedings of the second international congress of the phonetic sciences, 1935, 49-54. Inkelas, S. 1995 Dominant affixes and the phonology-morphology interface. In U. Kleinhenz (ed.), Interfaces in phonology. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 128-154. Itô, J. & R A. Mester 1995 Japanese phonology. In J. Goldsmith (ed.), The handbook of phonological theory. Oxford: Blackwell, 817-838. Karlsson, F. 1982 Suomen kielen äänne- ja muotorakenne [The phonology and morphology of Finnish], Juva: WSOY. Local, J. 1992 Modelling assimilation in a non-segmental rule-free phonology. In G.J. Docherty & D.R. Ladd (eds ), Papers in laboratory phonology II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 190-223. Local, J. & R. Ogden 1998 Nordic prosodies: representation and phonetic interpretation. In S. Wemer (ed.), Nordic Prosody VII. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, 9-24.

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Ogden, R. 1995a

An exploration of phonetic exponency in Firthian prosodie analysis: form and substance in Finnish phonology. PhD dissertation, University of York. 1995b Palatality as a prosody in Tundra Nenets. Proceedings of the Xlllth international congress of phonetic sciences, volume 1. Stockholm, 54-57. 1996 Prosodies in Finnish. York papers in linguistics 17, 191-240. Ogden, R. & J. Local 1994 Disentangling prosodies from autosegments: a note on the misrepresentation of a research tradition. Journal of linguistics 30, 477-498. Palmer, F.R. (ed.) 1970 Prosodie analysis. London: Oxford University Press. Pierrehumbert, J. 1990 Phonological and phonetic representation. Journal of phonetics 18, 375-394. Pollard, C. & I.A. Sag 1987 Information-based syntax and semantics. Center for the study of language and information, 13. 1994 Head-driven phrase structure grammar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Rapóla, M. 1966 Suomen kielen äännehistorian luennot [Lectures on the history of the Finnish language]. Helsinki: SKS. Robins, R.H. 1957 Aspects of prosodie analysis. Proceedings of the University of Durham philosophical society 1, 1-12. [Reprinted in Palmer (1970), 188-200], Scobbie, J.M. 1991 Attribute value phonology. PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh. Scobbie J.M., J.S. Coleman & S. Bird 1996 Key aspects of declarative phonology. In J. Durand & Β. Laks (eds.), Current trends in phonology: models and methods. Paris: CNRS, 685-710. Simpson, A. 1992 The phonologies of the English auxiliary system. In R. Tracy (ed.), Who climbs the grammar tree? Tübingen: Niemeyer, 209-219. Sprigg, R.K. 1957a Junction in spoken Burmese. Studies in linguistic analysis, 104-138. 1957b Studies in linguistic analysis (SLA). Special volume of the Philological Society. Waterson, N. 1956 Some aspects of the phonology of the nominal forms of the Turkish word. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 18, 578-591. [Reprinted in Palmer (1970), 174-87],

22 Sievers' Law in Vedic Andrea Calabrese

1. Introduction

Sievers' Law deals with the syllabification of high vocoids appearing before a vowel and after a consonant in Indo-European languages. The present article is concerned with the instantiation of this law in Vedic Sanskrit.1 Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, the earliest of which is the Rigveda, and the Brähmanas, the later prose theological treatises. Classical Sanskrit represents the later stage of this language. Vedic Sanskrit differs from Classical Sanskrit primarily in the use of pitch accent and of forms like the subjunctive, the pluperfect and the conditional. Another difference between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit is the syllabification of high vocoids which, with the exception of some morphological contexts, are quite consistently treated as glides in prevocalic position in the Classical language. In Vedic Sanskrit, instead, their syllabification is governed by Sievers' Law. According to this law, in a position before a vowel and after a consonant, high vowels are in complementary distribution with their glide counterparts, with the vocalic variants appearing after heavy syllables and the glide variants after light ones. This is shown in (1) (a transitional glide appears between the high vowels and the following vowel): (1)

a. VCCiyV V:CiyV

b. VCyV

An analysis of this phenomenon will be proposed in the constraint-and-repair framework proposed by Calabrese (1988, 1995), Paradis (1988). The analysis is crucially based on the assumption that the UG constraint in (2) which disallows complex onsets ending in a glide is active in Vedic phonology:

674

Andrea Calabrese

(2)

σ

Χ

Χ I [-cons]

The constraint in (2) interacts with a process of glide formation which characterizes Vedic syllabification. In particular, the constraint in (2) blocks the application of this process whenever its output creates a complex onset ending with a glide. This occurs only after heavy syllables where the preglide consonant can only be syllabified as the onset of the following sequence. This will provide a basic account for the facts in (la). 2 The account of (lb) will require additional assumptions. Crucial to this account is the recognition of the presence of ambisyllabic structures such as that in (3) in Vedic. The proposal is that, in this language, consonants appearing before a sonorant are syllabified both as the coda of the preceding light syllable and as the onset of the following syllable. (3)

σ

Χ b

Χ u

σ

Χ dh

Χ y

Χ a

σ

Χ t

Χ e

Several results can be obtained once the ambisyllabic structure in (3) is postulated for Vedic. First of all, it accounts for why a cluster such as /dhy/ makes the preceding syllable heavy as we see in the metrical system and in morphological processes sensitive to syllable quantity. This occurs because /dh/ belongs to the coda of this syllable. At the same time (3) accounts for why the voiced aspirate is not affected by the process of laryngeal neutralization which applies to coda consonants in Vedic. In this case, in fact, laryngeal neutralization cannot apply to /dh/ because it belongs also to the onset position. Application of a rule to segments linked to different syllable positions is blocked by the Uniformity Applicability Condition (UAC) of Schein and Steriade (1986) which states that rules and constraints must apply exhaustively to their targets (see (41)). By assuming the UAC and structures such as that in (3) we also have an account of (lb). Given the UAC, the constraint in (2) cannot apply in (lb) - or

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the medial syllable in (3) which has the structure in (lb) - since the first consonant - /dh/ in (3) - is also part of the coda of the preceding syllable. The chapter is organized as follows. In section 2, I will introduce the theoretical apparatus necessary for my analysis of the Vedic facts. A detailed discussion of the process of resyllabification, and in particular of the process of glide formation, will be provided in this section with an example from modern French. Sections 3 and 4 deal with the Vedic facts: section 3 is concerned with the facts of Sievers' Law; 3 section 4 deals with the zero grade formation, a morphophonological syncope process which is fundamental to understand Vedic syllabification. An analysis of this process will be provided. In section 5 a first account of Sievers' Law will be introduced. This account reformulates Murray's (1988) analysis of Sievers' Law in Germanic and is based on the idea that superheavy syllables and complex onsets ending with glides are disallowed in Vedic. Section 6 provides evidence that this account cannot be maintained: not only are superheavy syllables possible in Vedic, but also complex onsets with glides appear to occur under special structural conditions. With regard to this latter issue, this section also points out that there is apparent contradictory evidence in favor of and against this type of onset: in intervocalic clusters of rising sonority (e.g. VCyV) the first consonant seems to be syllabified both as the coda of the preceding syllable (pointing to a syllabification VC. yV) and as an onset of the second syllable (pointing to a syllabification V. CyV). Section 7 deals with the special conditions under which complex onsets with glides can appear. In particular, it takes the above mentioned contradictory evidence at its face value, thereby solving it: in this section, it is in fact argued that the first consonant of a cluster such as VCyV is ambisyllabic; it is at the same time the coda of the first syllable and the onset of the second. Evidence for this assumption from the doubling of consonants found in Vedic manuscripts is also provided in this section. Various consequences follow from this hypothesis, among them, a more adequate account of Sievers' Law. Section 8 deals with the exceptions to Sievers' Law and shows that an underlying distinction between high vowels and glides must be postulated for Vedic. Section 9 deals with the socalled Lindeman's Law, a law which is concerned with the syllabification of word-initial clusters ending with a glide which behave differently than those found in word-medial positions.

2. A theory of syllabic constraints and repairs

Before discussing Sievers' Law in Vedic, I will outline the theoretical framework adopted in this analysis (for detailed discussion see Calabrese 1996). This chapter is couched in the constraint-and-repair model developed in Calabrese (1988, 1995) (see also Paradis 1988). The general architecture of this model is

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provided in (4). It assumes a markedness module containing universal constraints and repairs which adjust violations of these constraints. In addition to this module, there is a Phonological/Morpho-phonological component which contains a more traditional system of rules which can be ordered among each other and also with respect to the markedness module. At every stage of the phonological derivation, i.e. after morphology and after the application of each rule, the phonological string is checked for well-formedness by the relevant constraints and wherever there is a violation, a repair procedure will fix up this violation.

Surface Representations

2.1. A theory of syllabic constraints In Calabrese (1995) the notion of phonological complexity is formalized by using ranked negative constraints called Marking Statements. Each configuration characterized by a certain degree of complexity is to be formulated as a marking statement. 4 These constraints are contained in the Markedness Module. Marking statements may be active or deactivated. If a marking statement is

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active in a given language, a configuration that violates it is not allowed and when speakers of this language have to deal with this violation, for example in speaking a foreign language, it is repaired by a set of procedures called simplification procedures. In this chapter we will be concerned with the subcomponent of the markedness module dealing with syllable structure. It contains syllabic constraints and syllabic repair procedures. I begin with syllabic constraints. It is well known that syllabic configurations can be organized in hierarchies of complexity (see Clements 1990, Vennemann 1988, Romani & Calabrese, in press, Calabrese & Romani 1998 for more discussion). In this chapter, we will be concerned mostly with complex onsets. Thus I focus on them here. A simplified complexity ranking for bisegmental onsets is provided in (5) (see Clements 1990 for a complete one) (0=0bstruents, N=Nasals, L=Liquids, G=Glides, V=Vowels): (5)

Complexity ranking for complex onsets Bisegmental onsets: a. ONV (e.g. tma, tna) b. OGV (e.g. tya, twa) c. OLV (e.g. tra, pia)

most complex less complex

Following the complexity rankings in (5) we can formulate the different marking statements in (6) for bisegmental complex onsets: (6)

*

a.

σ

(=*CnV)

R Ν X [+ cons]

b.

X +cons + son + nas *

σ R Ν

X

X

[+cons]

[-cons]

(=*CyV)(=(2)), 5

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c.

*

^ X I [+ cons]

/ X I + cons + son -nas

σ

/

(=*CrV)

R

Ν

Different languages allow different degrees of complexity. Italian, for example, does not allow onsets made up of an obstruent and a nasal (e.g. /pn/). This configuration, however, is allowed in classical Greek. In terms of the marking statements in (6), we say that (6a) is deactivated in Greek, but active in Italian.

2.2. Syllabic repairs and resyllabification When a syllabic configuration is blocked in a given language by an active marking statement of this language, the disallowed configuration will be simplified to an acceptable degree of complexity by a syllabic repair procedure. I now turn to the issue of syllabic repairs and resyllabification. It is assumed here that syllabification is lexical (see Calabrese 1996, Sloan 1991 for evidence). Therefore, morphemes enter the phonological component fully syllabified. This lexical syllabification is subject to modification as the morphology puts morphemes together and phonological rules change the syllable structure of the string. As in Calabrese 1996, it is hypothesized that at every stage in the derivation, the string is checked for well-formedness by relevant constraints and wherever there is a violation, syllabic repair procedures are invoked to remove the violation. This results in a resyllabification of the string. The full set of syllabic repair procedures forms what I will call the resyllabification module. This module is part of the markedness component. In this chapter I will deal only with the repair procedures of onset incorporation, a subcase of syllabic incorporation, and peak assignment. Other syllabic repair procedures not discussed here are deletion, metathesis, and epenthesis. Let us begin with onset incorporation which is given in (7). Observe that onset incorporation as formulated in (7) can resyllabify a segment contained in a syllable but cannot erase this syllable. The consequences of this move will be discussed below.

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As an instance of this resyllabifícation procedure, we can consider a simple example from Vedic. When we put together the root [vac] and the suffix [-as], we obtain the configuration in (8): (8)

σ

X ν

σ

X X a c

-

a

X X s

The configuration in (8) is disallowed by the constraint in (9) (cf. Vennemann 1984, Murray & Vennemann 1983, Murray 1988):6 (9)

Syllable contact law

*

σ I Χ I α

σ I X I β

if α is less sonorous than β

The rule of onset incorporation in (7) applies to repair the disallowed configuration in (8), producing (10):

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(10)

σ

σ

/R

/ X v

N

X a

X a

X c

X s

Let us consider the repair procedure of peak assignment which assigns a nucleus position to segments in syllabic margin position. The basic modification implemented by this procedure is given in (11): σ

(Π)

X

-»

R I Ν I X

As an example of the application of this repair procedure, consider the resyllabification of an underlying onset glide as a nucleus, a type of resyllabification which will be discussed in more details later (see section 8). As will be discussed in that section, several morphemes in Vedic must be characterized as containing an underlying onset glide. When this glide appears after a consonant preceded by a heavy syllable, it is resyllabified as a syllabic nucleus. This resyllabification removes a complex onset ending in a glide, a configuration which is disallowed in Vedic (cf. (2)=(6b)): (12)

σ

σ

σ

σ

σ R Ν

Χ Χ Χ Χ Χ V C C

y V

->

peak assignment

Χ Χ

Χ Χ

V C

C i

Χ V (Other rules discussed later also apply at this point)

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I end this section by discussing the process of glide formation by which a high vowel is resyllabified into a glide as roughly shown in (13). This process will play an important role in the analysis of Sievers' Law in Vedic. Thus it is important to clarify the different theoretical aspects of my analysis of it. A sample analysis of the application of this process from modern French will also be provided; (13)

σ 1 R I 1 Ν

σ ι I R ι I Ν ιI X

X I1 i

σ A

/ -»

a

X I1 y

Ν I X I1 a

First of all, I assume that glide formation is a process of «syllabification which is triggered by a constraint against hiatus such as that formulated in (14):7 (14)

* σ I R I Ν I X

σ I R I Ν I X

In the cases relevant to our discussion here, the constraint in (14) triggers the application of onset incorporation as a syllabic repair procedure. The rule of onset incorporation in (7) fixes up the disallowed configurations, as shown in (15): σ I 1 R I 1 Ν I1 X

σ ι I R ι I Ν ιI Χ

σ ι I R / ι / I /' Ν / -*

Χ

σ R ι I Ν ιI Χ

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Crucially in this case, onset incorporation does not remove the previous syllabic association of its target. Thus the first segment in (15) remains associated with the nuclear position. I propose that onset incorporation cannot erase a previously assigned syllable. The removal of the previously assigned syllable structure can be done only by another special merger rule formalized in (16). The rule in (16) erases the syllable containing the nucleus target of onset incorporation. Subsequently the segments in the onset of the erased syllable (if there are any) are incorporated into the onset of the remaining syllable - or as a coda of the preceding syllable, if the first move is not allowed (see discussion below) by other applications of the resyllabification procedure: σ

A ¡V

(X)

X

/

'

/

σ

σ

R

A

1\ Ν I1 X

(X)

/ // X

n

11 X

Glide formation occurs when the target configuration of (14) contains a high vocoid as in (17).8 Given (14), a configuration such as that in (17) is disallowed: σ 1 1 R I 1 Ν I 1 X ι1 i

σ ι I R ι I Ν ι I Χ ιI a

Thus the sequence in (17) is resyllabified as in (18): i.e., glide formation is therefore an instance of the onset incorporation process in (7) followed by merger (16).

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As we will see, in some cases the rule of syllabic merger will fail to apply either because it would create a disallowed onset cluster or because of idiosyncratic reasons (see section 8). In this case, we preserve the ambisyllabic vowel in (18b). An ambisyllabic vowel is phonetically implemented as involving a transitional glide in the onset subcomponent (for a discussion of ambisyllabic structures such as this, see also McCarthy & Prince 1993b, and Rosenthall 1994). This is what is traditionally called glide insertion. This structure is represented in (19) (çi=a glide):9

Let us now consider some synchronic alternations involving high vocoids in French, which will provide a good example for my theoretical analysis of glide formation. In French, glide-final complex onsets are possible only when bisegmental, as can be observed in (20) (cf. Tranel 1987):1 (20) a. miette nier pierre biniou biologie

[myet] [nyer] [pyer] [binyu] [byolo3i]

'crumb' 'to deny' 'stone' 'bagpipes' 'biology'

fouet jouer Louis

[fwe] [3wer] [lwi]

'whip' 'to play' proper name

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b. crier peuplier ouvrier sucrier propriété

[kriye] 'to shout' clouer [kluwe] 'to nail' [pœpliye] 'poplar' prouesse [pruwes] 'prowess' [uvriye] 'worker' éblouir [ebluwir] 'to dazzle' [sükriye] 'sugar bowl' [propriyete] 'property'

c. *[krye] *[klwe] *[pœplye] *[prwes] *[uvrye] *[eblwir] *[sükrye] *[propryete] We can account for the contrast in syllabification between (20a) and (20b) by assuming the constraint in (21) which disallows complex onsets where a glide is preceded by more than one consonant:

Observe that given the constraint in (21), the syllabification in (20b) where the post-consonantal high vocoid appears as a syllabic peak and is separated from the following vowel by what appears to be a homorganic glide is the only possible syllabification of this sequence. Consider the form [kriye]. If the high vocoid were syllabified as a glide, we would obtain (22) which is disallowed by (21): (22)

*

k

r

σ

y

e

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Syllabic repair strategies such as segmental deletion or epenthesis are not allowed in this case in French. The high vocoid is thus assigned to a syllabic nucleus. In this way, however, a hiatus configuration is created. Hiatus configurations containing a high vowel are disallowed in French. The disallowed hiatus configuration is repaired by syllabic incorporation thus producing an ambisyllabic configuration, as shown in (23): (23)

σ

X

X

σ

X

χ

If syllabic merger applied in this case, it would create the configuration in (22) which is blocked by (21). Thus syllabic merger fails to apply and we are left with the ambisyllabic structure in (23). As proposed above, the ambisyllabic configuration in (23) is phonetically implemented as [kriye]. Now observe the alternations in (24): before vowel-initial suffixes, roots ending in high vowels undergo a process of onset incorporation changing the vowel into a glide: (24)

loue tue lie

[lu] [tü] [li]

lou+é, lou+er tu+é, tu+er li+é, li+er

[lwe] [tqe] [lye]

The process is formally represented in (25): (25)

σ

σ

h /

AI1 '

Ν I

X

I1 1

/ Χ

1 X

ι1 i

σ ι I

/

>

ιι 1

R

ι I Ν ι

Ι Χ ιι i

σ

/ /

I Χ

+

ιI e

Á

/ ι

Χ - » 1

ιI

onset incorporation (7)

Now let us consider the forms in (26):

σ

σ

! /R / ιI

// ι

Ι / Ν / Χ

R

'

Ν ι

I Χ

ιI Iι i y e

Χ

Χ

i

y

ι I

>

ι I

syllabic merger (16)

I

Ν ι I

Χ

ιI e

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(26) a. troue plie b. *[trwe]

[tra] [pli]

trou+é, trou+er pli+é, pli+er

[truwe] [pliye]

*[plye]

As observed above, in these forms, syllabic merger does not apply since it would create a disallowed trisegmental onset. The active constraint in (21) blocks the syllable merger operation: (27)

X I ρ

X X X -> X X X I I I onset incorporation | | | 1 i + e p l i y

X | syllabic merger—> || e blocked by (21)

Observe that there are also cases in which a configuration disallowed by (21) is removed by applying a rule of peak assignment. Let us consider these cases. When the suffix -ier [-ye], which is found, for example, in the word banquier [bäkye] 'banker' (derived from banque [bäk] 'bank'), is attached to a noun ending in a consonant + liquid cluster, it is not the sequence [CLye] which is finally produced, but rather [CLiye] (cf. Tranel 1987). This is shown in (28): (28)

sable [sabl] 'sand' sucre [sükr] 'sugar'

sablier [sabliye] sucrier [sükriye]

'hourglass' 'sugar bowl'

The same phenomenon can be observed in the speech of many French speakers when the endings -ions [-yö] and -iez [-ye] are added to verb roots ending in a consonant + liquid cluster (cf. Tranel 1987): (29)

souffler: souffrir:

nous soufflions vous souffriez

[nusufliyö] [vusufriye]

'we were blowing' 'you were suffering'

Tranel (1987) reports that in the conditional first and second person plural of first conjugation verbs whose stems end in a consonant (e.g. demand- nous demanderions [nudcemädceryö], 'we would ask', aim-: vous aimeriez [vuzemœrye] 'you would like'), some speakers delete the vowel which follows the stem. But significantly, they use the same strategy as that mentioned above to avoid [CLyV] sequences, hence the pronunciations [nudcemädriyö], [vuzemriye].

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All of these cases can be accounted for by assuming that when morphological composition or another phonological process creates a configuration disallowed by (21), peak assignment then acts as a syllabic repair procedure and resyllabifies the sequence by assigning a syllabic peak to the high vocoid in onset position. The hiatus situation thus created is repaired by the rule of onset incorporation in (7). Rule (16) crucially cannot apply since it would recreate the disallowed configuration that was removed by the peak assignment rule. As an example, let us consider the derivation of [nudcemädriyö] 'we would ask'. We begin with the intermediate representation in (30): (30)

σ

Χ

Χ

η

σ

σ

σ

Χ Χ X Χ X+X

X X X

u

d

σ

œ

m

à

d

œ

r

y

ô

A rule deleting the suffix-initial /oe/ applies as shown in (31): (31)

σ

σ

σ

σ

t

k

t

n

/ X

/ 1 X X

1 / 1 X X X X

η

u

œ m

/ A A / / / // Á

d

à

/ / 1 X X X

d

r

y

o

The consonant Iài left unsyllabified by the application of the vowel deletion rule must be resyllabified in the onset of the following syllable because of the constraint in (9) forbidding heterosyllabic sequences in which the second consonant is more sonorous than the first one. This is the case in (31) since /r/ is more sonorous than /d/. We thus obtain the configuration in (32):

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(32)

σ

σ

σ

σ

t\ t\ t\

X I η

x

I

x

x

I

u

I

d

x

x

I

œ

I

m

x x I I à d r

x x I I y ô

But now a violation of the constraint in (21) is created. This disallowed syllabic configuration is repaired by resyllabifying the high vocoid as a syllabic peak as shown in (33):

Onset incorporation accounts for the surface shape of the sequence: σ»

σ

σ

hΝ

kΝ

hΝ

/ / /

/ X I 1 η

I

χ

ι I

U

/

Χ ι I d

/ X ι ι I I œ m I

χ

I χ

ι I ä

Μ/ σ

λ

// ' ίΓ V/

Χ ι I d

χ

χ

ι

I r

I I i

σ

/R ι I Ν ι I Χ ι I y ö

The same output form CLiyV/CLuwV can thus be obtained both by blocking the merger rule, as in (27), and by applying peak assignment to a high vocoid in onset position, as in (33). We have a so-called "conspiracy" situation in which a disallowed configuration is being avoided by using different means.11 As we will see in section 8, the same type of situation arises in Vedic. Conspiracies of this type provide evidence for the use of constraints in phonological theory. The

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constraint characterizes the disallowed configuration that the language tries to avoid in different ways.

2.3. Rule blocking The notion of rule blocking will play an important role in my analysis. Let us consider again the cases in (26), where I proposed that the rule of syllable merging applying after onset incorporation is blocked when it would create a disallowed configuration. Observe that in this case the application of peak assignment would create the very ill-formed output which was removed by the rule of onset incorporation. Going through peak assignment would thus lead to a circular derivation. (35) σ

σ

σ

σ

σ

XXX

Χ Χ Χ

+ Χ

X X X

χ

pli—> ρ 1 i

e-»

p l i y e

(onset incorp.)

σ

χ χ χ χ —> p l y e

(syllable merg.)

σ σ

χ χ χ χ p l i e

—>...

(peak assignment) (onset incorp.)

We can exclude this type of derivation if we allow the possibility of evaluating a derivation involving the application of repair procedures. Insofar as syllabification is concerned, this means that the application of a rule can be blocked if resyllabification (with which I mean all of the processes that are available in the resyllabification module) fails to provide a well-formed syllable structure for the output of the rule. That is, the derivation that would start with the application of that rule is blocked if it crucially involves processes in the resyllabification component and these processes fail to provide a correct syllable structure to the output of that rule. 2 As a further example, let us consider a case in which the syncope rule characterizing Vedic zero grade is blocked. Zero grade is a morpho-phonological process by which vowel [a] is deleted in certain morphological contexts (see section 4 for further discussion of zero grade in Vedic). In Vedic, roots containing only obstruents do not undergo the syncope process in certain morphological categories where it is otherwise expected. This is the case of the form /sap-tá/ 'curse-PP' shown in (36):

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σ

σ

Á

X s

X

X

a

ρ

χ

χ

t

a

-

If the root /sap/ underwent syncope, we would obtain (37), where, as we will see later, the structure of the syllable affected by syncope is deleted: (37)

σ

X I s

X X I I ρ - t

X I a

/s/ and /ρ/, being obstruents, cannot be assigned to a syllable peak by the Vedic resyllabification procedure. Only sonorants can be syllabic peaks in Vedic. At the same time, they cannot be resyllabified in any other way. In particular, no epenthesis or deletion is available in this case in Vedic. Therefore, in the case of (37), we are unable to repair the ill-formed sequence into a well-formed syllable. Hence the sequence that we would obtain by applying syncope to the root /sap/ cannot be syllabified in any way. Thus the resyllabification module fails to provide a well-formed structure to the output of the syncope rule. I propose that under these conditions, the application of syncope is blocked.

2.4. Relaxation of constraints Another crucial aspect of the analysis proposed here involves the idea that the application of a constraint can be relaxed if the target configuration occurs in certain structural conditions. Let us consider a concrete example of such relaxation. It is well known that in many languages having geminates, such as Italian or Japanese, the first component of a geminate can be syllabified as a coda, in violation of the constraints holding on this position in these languages. For example, let us consider Italian. In the native Italian lexicon, obstruents are

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disallowed in coda position. Thus the forms in (38) are not possible native Italian words: (38)

*pakto

*apto

We can account for this fact by assuming a constraint that disallows obstruents in coda position such as that in (39): (39)

* R

X I + cons -son However, the constraint in (39) can be violated in Italian if the coda position dominates the first component of a geminate as we can see in (40). (40) pakko

'package'

atto

'act'

This fact is usually accounted for by assuming that a constraint can be violated when its target is part of a linked structure (cf. Itô 1986, Itô and Mester 1993; see also Goldsmith 1989 and Harris 1990 for alternative explanations). Here we explain this fact by assuming that a constraint does not hold if it cannot apply exhaustively to its target configuration. Following Schein and Steriade (1986), we can obtain this result if we hypothesize the principle in (41) (a modified version of what they call the uniformity applicability condition): 13 (41)

Given a node η and a set S consisting of all nodes directly dominating n, and given a rule or a constraint T, if Τ refers to η and any member of S, it must refer to all members of S to be active.

Let us consider the syllabification of the form /pakko/ given in (42):

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σ

σ

/κ

χ

χ

χ

χ

χ

The constraint in (39) cannot target the first component of the geminated obstruent which is syllabified as a coda because this obstruent is at the same time syllabified as the onset of the following syllable. Therefore the otherwise disallowed configuration with a coda obstruent is allowed to surface. After this brief theoretical introduction we can now turn to Sievers' Law.

3. Sievers' Law in Vedic: the treatment of post-consonantal high vocoids in Vedic

It is well known that in many cases, segments represented in the traditional text of the Rigveda as y and ν must be scanned as vowels / and u in order for the otherwise very regular syllable count to work correctly. For example in a hymn whose meter (trstubh) requires lines of eleven syllables with a caesura after the fourth or fifth syllable, the line is conventionally written and chanted as in (43) (in which it is indicated where the post-consonantal high vocoid is treated as a syllabic nucleus and where it is not):

(43)

[i] [y] á: sastyá: saptatyá: so:mapé:yam (2.18.5c) (quoted from Kiparsky 1971) '[come] here with sixty, seventy to drink soma'

The only way this line can fulfill the metrical requirements of the verse is by reading the word ('sixty') as trisyllabic sastiái, whereas the morphologically parallel form meaning 'seventy' has to be read with non-syllabic y {saptatyá). Sievers (1878) observed that the syllabic i, u scannings of y, ν are especially frequent after a heavy syllable, that is, when the vowel of the preceding syllable is either long or followed by two or more consonants.14 This observation was the basis for his "law". We can reformulate this law as stating that in a sequence where it appears before a vowel and after a consonant, a high vocoid is

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693

syllabified as a vowel when this sequence is preceded by a heavy syllable, and as a glide when this sequence is preceded by a light syllable.15 Some good examples of Sievers' alternations appear in the zero grade of verbal roots containing a high vocoid and the zero grade of the suffix [-nau]. Let us begin with the former alternations. If a root begins with a consonantal cluster, the high vocoid is always assigned a syllabic nucleus (throughout the text I will use the traditional symbol ν to represent the labiovelar glide [w]):16 (44)

With reduplication: pipriyé sisriyé tustuvúh susruve

/pi+pri:+é/ /si+sri+é/ /tu+stu+ús/ /su+sru+e/

root base/zero grade prai/pri: 'please-PF-Md' srai/sri 'resort-PF-Md' stau/stu 'praise-PF-Act' srau/sru 'hear-PF-Md'

With augment: ásriyan

/á+sri+an/

srai/sri

'resort-AO.'

If the root begins with a simple consonant, the high vocoid is non-nuclear when the sequence consonant + high vocoid is preceded by a light syllable: (45)

With augment: ávyan áhyan

/á+vi:+an/ /á+hi+an/

root base/zero grade vai/vi: 'enjoy-AO.' hai/hi 'impel-AO.'

With reduplication cikyé17 juhvati susvati pipyuh mimyuh ninyathuh bibhyuh vivye dávidhvatah

/ci+ci+é/ /ghu+ghu+ati/ /su+su:+ati/ /pi+pi+us/ /mi+mi+us/ /ni+ni:+athus/ /bhi+bhi:+us/ /vi+vi:+e/ /dháv+i+dhu:+atas/

cai/ci ghau/ghu sau/su: pai/pi mai/mi nai/ni: bhai/bhi: vai/vi: dhau/dhu:

'gather-PF' 'sacrifice-PR' 'bring forth-PR' 'swell-PF' 'fix-PF' 'lead-PF' 'fear-PF 'enjoy-PF' 'shake-PT'

If the sequence is preceded by a heavy syllable, then the high vocoid is assigned a syllabic nucleus.

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ju:juvuh su:suvuh su:suve su:suvat di:dhiyuh diidhiye (but also di:dhye) jo:huvat 18 nó:nuvanta nó:nuvuh

/ju:+ju:+us/ /su:+su:+us/ /su:+su:+e/ /su:+su:+at/ /di:+dhi:+us/ /di:+dhi:+e/

jau/ju: sva:/su: id. id. dhai/dhi: id.

'speed-PF' 'swell-PF' id. id. 'shine-PF' id.

/ghau+ghu:+at/ /náu+nu+ant/ /náu+nu+us/

ghau/ghu: nau/nu id.

'call-INT' 'praise-SB' 'praise-PF'

The same cluster of facts is found with verbs containing the stem-forming suffix -nu- (zero grade of -nau-). This suffix is added to the zero grade of the root. Before endings beginning with a vowel, the high vocoid of the suffix is nonnuclear if the suffix is preceded by a light syllable. root + suffix base

(47)

rnvánti krnvánti minván vrnváte srnvánti sunvánti sprnvaté

/r+nu+ánti/ /kr+nu+ánti/ /mi+nu+án/ /vr+nu+áte/ /sr+nu+ánti/ /su+nu+ánti/ /spr+nu+até/

ar+nau kar+nau mai+nau var+nau sar+nau sau+nau spar+nau

forms

'go-PR' 'make-PR' 'fix-IMP' 'cover-PR-Md' 'hear-PR' 'press-PR' 'win-PR'

However, if the suffix is preceded by a heavy syllable, the high vocoid is assigned a syllabic nucleus, as in (48): (48)

asnuvánt dabhnuvánti prusnuvánti saknuvánti

/as+nu+ánt/ /dabh+nu+ánti/ /prus +nu+ánti7 /sak+nu+ánti/

ans+nau dabh+nau praus+nau sak+nau

'attain-PT' 'harm-PR' 'sprinkle-PR' 'be able-PR'

4. Zero grade in Vedic

Before beginning to account for Sievers' Law, we have to discuss the process of zero grade which plays an important role in the examples in (44-48). Zero grade accounts for alternations in the shape of roots such as those given in (49):

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

zero grade bu-budh-úr

zero grade budh-tá ij-tá[ísta-] uc-i-tá

'worship'

uc-tá [uktá] vrsc-ná [vrkná-] vrdh-tá [vrddhá]

'say'

vac

full grade bu-báudh-a [bubó:dha] i-yáj-a [iyája] u-áuc-a [uvó:ca] u-vac-a

vrasc

va-vrásc-a

i-ij-úr [i:júr] u-uc-úr [u:cúr] u-uc-úr [u:cúr] va-vrsc-úr

vardh

va-várdh-a

va-vrdh-úr

root baudh yaj auc

695

'wake'

'please'

'cut up' 'grow'

Along the lines of Kiparsky (1973, 1982), Sarma (1994), Steriade (1988), we can say that it involves a syncope rule deleting the nuclear vowel /a/ under certain morphological conditions. (50)

The syncope rule: X —> 0

/

in certain morphological environments

a Observe the behavior of the sonorants that are left after the syncope of nuclear /a/ of the root. If the root syllable contains a sonorant in the rhyme, then only this sonorant can be assigned a syllable peak.19 (51) full grade srau 'hear' dhvar 'injure' syand 'move on'

zero grade sru dhvr synd [syad]

not *srv not *dhur not *sind

However, if there is no sonorant in the rhyme, a sonorant in the onset can be assigned a peak as shown in the forms in (52):2 (52) full grade svap myaks grabh grah vac vad

zero grade supmiksgrbhg?"hucud-

' sleep' 'be situated' 'seize' 'seize' 'speak' 'speak'

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Otherwise, the process of deletion is blocked unless the consonants of the root can be resyllabified in the adjacent syllabic context: (53) root

zero grade 1 (resyllabification) pa-pt-úr séd-us (< sa-sd-us) sep-ús (< sa-sp-us)

full grade

a. pat b. sad

pa-pá:t-a sa-sá:d-a

c. sap

sa-sap-a

zero grade 2 (blocking) pat-itá sat-tá

'fly' 'sit'

sap-tá

'curse

A detailed analysis of the behavior of sonorants in zero grade is given in Calabrese (1996) (who develops the analysis proposed by Steriade 1988). Here I will give a simplified account of it. A fundamental hypothesis of this analysis is that postvocalic sonorants are in nuclear position. This is obtained by the rule of nucleus incorporation in (54) which Chomsky-adjoins a coda sonorant to a directly preceding nucleus (see Calabrese 1996 for supporting arguments).21 This is shown in (55): (54)

R

R I N' ΝI χ

(55)

χ I [+son]

σ

X

X

X

X

X

s

y

a

η

d

The syncope rule (50) targets only /a/ which is in the nuclear head position as shown in (56):

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

X X -> I I a [+son]

0

697

X I [+son]

By removing the nucleus head, (50) causes an automatic restructuring of the nucleus by which a postnuclear sonorant, if there is any, becomes the leftmost constituent of the nucleus and therefore the nucleus head as in (57):22

i

X I s

X X I I y η

X I d

The syllabic status of the sonorant is therefore immediately accounted for. 23 ' 24 At this point, let us consider cases in which there is a postnuclear obstruent, and the application of syncope, therefore, does not lead directly to another nucleus candidate. We know that in this case an onset sonorant, if present, can be assigned peak, as shown in (52). We can obtain this result by proposing that if syncope deletes the only nuclear constituent, the syllable structure is deleted. The idea is that if the nucleus does not dominate a skeletal position after syncope, the whole syllable structure is erased. A subsequent application of resyllabification assigns nuclear status to the onset sonorant and a syllable is built around it. Let us consider the form susupúr 'sleep-PF' from the root svap/sup. After the application of syncope we obtain the impossible structure in (58) where the nucleus constituent does not dominate a skeletal position, and therefore the entire syllable structure is deleted:

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σ

σ

σ

σ

σ

Χ Χ - Χ Χ Χ Χ - Χ Χ

Χ Χ - Χ Χ

su

su

s v a p

σ

ur

sv

σ

Χ - Χ Χ ρ

u r

σ R

Χ Χ - Χ Χ II II su sv

Χ - Χ Χ I II ρ u r

The onset consonants of the erased syllable cannot be incorporated into the coda of the first syllable since they form a sequence of rising sonority. Nor can they become the onset of the following syllable.25 A candidate for peak assignment is, however, found among these consonants: the labiovelar glide /w/ (=orthographic v). Therefore peak is assigned to this glide as shown in (59): (59)

σ

Χ I s

σ

σ

Χ Χ Χ Χ Χ I I I I I u s u ρ u

Χ I r

We thus obtain the correct syllabification of this form.26 Let us now consider what happens when a sonorant is not found either in the rhyme or in the onset of the syllable affected by syncope, as in the form /pat-itá/ 'fly-PP'. In section 2.3, we have already discussed the reason why zero grade fails to apply in this context. I repeat the analysis here. This form is underlyingly represented as in (60):

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

(60)

σ

σ σ I R I Ν / Ν I / I X X X I I I i t a

Κ / k

N\

/

699

\\

X X X I1 I1 Ρ a t

If the root /pat/ underwent syncope, we would obtain (61): (61)

σ

σ I

σ/

ι ν I χ ι I i

/ί Ν

Λ / / Λ

ν\

/

\ Χ ι I t

X ι 1 Ρ

/ Χ Χ ι ι I I t a

/t/, not being a sonorant, is not part of the nucleus. Therefore syllable structure is deleted, as shown in (62): (62)

σ

σ

Ν

/ Ν

ί /ί

Χ I ρ

Χ I t

Χ I i

Χ I t

Χ I a

Neither /t/ nor /p/, being obstruents, can be assigned syllable peak by resyllabification. Ν can be resyllabified as the onset of the following /i/; however, there is no way of resyllabiiying /p/. Therefore, the sequence that we would obtain by applying syncope to the root /pat/ cannot be syllabified exhaustively. As proposed in section 2.3, if the ^syllabification module cannot assign a wellformed representation to the output of a given rule, then the application of this rule is blocked. This would be the case here, and therefore zero grade is prevented from applying to the root /pat/.

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In the form [pa-pt-úr], however, the output of the zero grade of this root can be resyllabified properly in the context as shown in (63). Therefore, the rule applies normally. (63)

σ

σ R

X X I I p

a

λ

X X I I -

p

t

X X I I

-

u

r

We thus have an account of zero grade in Vedic.

5. A first account of Sievers' Law

Let us go back to the examples in (44-48). As we can see in (44-48), application of zero grade to the roots in (44-46) and to the suffix /nau/ in (47-48) before vowel-initial suffixes creates hiatus configurations. Sievers' Law deals with the resolution of these hiatus configurations. Remember that no hiatus configuration is ever found in this language, at least in surface representations. We account for this fact by saying that it is characterized by a constraint against hiatus such as that formulated in (14) (repeated as (64)): σ J 1 R

σ ι I R

I 1

Ν I 1

X

Ν ι I Χ

Thus a configuration such as that in (65) is disallowed:27

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

(65)

* σ

σ

I R I Ν I X I i

I R I Ν I X I a

701

As discussed in section 2.2, the constraint in (64) triggers the application of onset incorporation as a syllabic repair procedure. Application of the rule of onset incorporation in (7) fixes up the disallowed configurations that are thus created, as shown in (66):

The outcome configuration in (66) may then undergo syllabic merger, if possible, as shown in (67):

When the rule of syllabic merger fails to apply for whatever reason, the ambisyllabic vowel in (67b) is preserved. As discussed in section 2.2, an ambisyllabic vowel is phonetically implemented as involving a transitional glide in the onset subcomponent. We can now begin to deal with the facts in (44-48). I will first discuss a reformulation of the account of Sievers' Law proposed by Murray (1988) for Germanic and Proto-Indo-European, which also holds for Vedic. This account

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is based on the assumption that Vedic always excludes superheavy rhymes and complex onsets ending in a glide. Unfortunately, as we will see in section 6, this account, although successful, cannot be maintained insofar as Vedic does have superheavy syllables and allows complex onsets with glides under certain structural conditions. A different solution will be proposed in section 7. Let us begin with this first account. Following and reformulating Murray (1988), we could account for Sievers' Law through an interaction between the glide formation process in (67) and the constraints in (68) (=(2)) and (69). *

(68)

X

(69)

σ

X I [-cons]

A rhyme cannot contain more than two timing units.

The constraint in (68) disallows complex onsets composed of a consonant followed by a high vocoid and prevents any complex onset of this type from surfacing. The constraint in (69) disallows rhymes containing more than two timing units. This account then assumes that whereas light and heavy syllables are allowed in Vedic, superheavy ones are not. Let us consider the forms [ásriyan] and [ávyan]. We start with the underlying representations in (70-71): (70)

a - vai - an28

(71)

a-srai-an

After the application of zero grade (see section 4 and Calabrese 1996), elimination of the morphological boundaries, and resyllabification, we obtain the intermediate forms in (72-73). Remember that after the application of zero grade, the post-consonantal high vocoids in (72-73) are treated as syllabic peaks: (72)

a . vi. an

(73)

a . sri . an

The glide in the form [ávyan] results from the application of the rule of glide formation. By the process in (67), the prevocalic high vocoid is incorporated as the onset of the following vowel. The issue is now what to do with the

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

703

consonant that was the onset of the syllable containing the prevocalic high vocoid. Following Murray (1988) (see also Marchand 1958), we could assume that the constraint in (68) is active in Vedic. Therefore, the consonant cannot become the onset of the syllable containing the glide, because in that case a violation of this constraint would be created. The coda of the preceding syllable is available, however, and thus we could say that the consonant is resyllabified as a coda of this syllable, as shown in (74):2 (74) a . v i . an

—»

a . vyan

(glide formation)

->

av . yan

(coda incorporation)

We thus have an account for the forms that display a glide variant of the suffixal high vocoid. The problem now is to account for the syllabic variant of this segment that appears after a heavy syllable. We can assume that the appearance of the syllabic variant indicates that the glide formation process is blocked in this case. The issue then is why there is such blocking. Following Murray (1988) (see also Seebold 1972), we could suppose that the constraint in (69) is also active in Vedic. This constraint, in conjunction with the constraint against complex onsets, blocks the application of the glide formation process after a heavy syllable. In particular, it blocks the process of syllable merger in (16). In this case, in fact, the preglide consonant cannot be syllabified in the coda of the preceding syllable because of the constraint in (69), and, at the same time, it cannot be syllabified as part of the onset of the following syllable because of the constraint on complex onsets in (68). Therefore the rule of syllable merger is blocked since its output would result in a structure that could not be syllabified. As proposed in the introduction, when the resyllabification module fails to provide a well-formed structure to the output of a rule, the application of this rule is blocked. The ambisyllabic structure created by the onset incorporation rule is therefore preserved. (75)

σ

σσ

σ

χ χ χ χ χ

σ

σ

χ χ χ χ

a s r i a

a s r i y a (onset inc.)

σ

χ

->

χ χ χ χ

σ

σ

χ

a s r i y a (syllable merger (16) is blocked)

An account for the forms we observed in (44-48) is thus obtained.

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Calabrese

6. Problems

The analysis just proposed relies on the hypothesis that both complex onsets with glides and superheavy syllables are disallowed in Vedic. Unfortunately, there is evidence that complex onsets and superheavy syllables are both actually possible in this language. This analysis must therefore be rejected. Evidence showing that superheavy syllables are allowed in Vedic is immediately provided by the sample forms in (76): (76)

ka:rtsnyauirjani u:rdhvátha: mairstu yunkté yungdhvam bhinttá bhunkté

'in full, entirely' 'strength' 'upwards' 'wipe-IP V' 'join-PR' 'join-AO' 'split-IPV' 'enjoy-PR'

(syllabified: (syllabified: (syllabified: (syllabified: (syllabified: (syllabified: (syllabified: (syllabified:

ka:r. tsnya) u:r. jani) u:r. dhvátha:) ma:rs . tu) yunk. té) yung. dhvam) bhint. tá) bhunk. té)

The forms in (76) - which are quite common in Vedic - are all violations of (69) insofar as the rhyme constituent contains more than two timing units. This shows that there is no problem in having superheavy syllables. Therefore, we can conclude that (69) cannot be maintained for Vedic. Evidence that complex onsets with glides are possible is more complex and is reviewed in the next section.

6.1. Evidence for complex onsets The analysis proposed in the preceding section was based on the assumption that complex onsets with glides are not possible. In this section, I investigate the behavior of consonant + high vocoid sequences. I focus on sequences of this type occurring in word-medial position, putting aside until section 9 wordinitial sequences, which display peculiarities of their own. Here we will be dealing with cases of the type in (77): (77)

VC(C)IV

(V=Vowel, C=Consonant, I=High vocoid)

My goal will be to determine whether or not the high vocoids form a complex onset with the preceding consonants. As we will see later, Vedic displays evidence both in favor of and against syllabifying these sequences as complex onsets. An apparent contradiction will therefore arise. In section 7 a solution for such contradiction will be proposed. This solution will provide a direct account for the alternations in the syllabicity of the high vocoids which characterize

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

705

Sievers' Law in Vedic. For now, let us consider the facts that support the existence of complex onsets. A.

(78)

Evidence for complex onsets with glides is provided by the behavior of 30 the labiovelar high vocoid before a palatal glide in the forms in (78): gavyanávyaplaivya- [Skr.] bhávyadivyá-

'relating to cows' 'praise-gerundive 'float-gerundive' 'be-gerundive' 'heavenly'

(< gau + ya-) (< nau + ya-) (< plau + ya-) (< bhau + ya-) (< diu + ya-)

Observe that a postvocalic high vocoid before a nonsyllabic segment merges by rule with the preceding vowel into a diphthong (or monophthong when the vowel is short) as shown in (79): (79)

gó:bhih ánu:not plo:s yáti bodhí juhóti

'cow-instr. pl.' 'praise-aorist' 'float-future' 'be-aor. imp.' 'pour a libation-PR'

(< gau + bhis) (< a + nu + nau +1) (< plau + sya + ti) (< bhau + dhi) (< ju + (g)hau + ti)

In order to account for the forms in (79), we rely on the process of nucleus incorporation in (54). This process incorporates the coda high vocoid into the preceding nucleus, as shown in (80). The application of a rule of monophthongization merging a nuclear sequence of [a] + following high vocoid - a rule which is not discussed here - accounts for the surface shape of the forms in (79): (80)

(plus a further rule of monophthongization: /a+i/->e, /a+u/->o)

[+son] If the labiovelar high vocoids occurring before the palatal glide in (78) were actually in coda position, we should expect them to merge with the preceding

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vowel, as in (81a). This is incorrect. Therefore, the labiovelar glide in (78) cannot be in coda position, but must be in the same onset as the following glide, as in (81b). We must then conclude that complex onsets with a glide as the last member must be possible (see Varma 1929: 77-78 for an enlightening discussion of the syllabification of clusters of high vocoids). (81) a. *gáu . ya- [góya-] *náu . ya- [nóya-] *plau . ya- [ploya-] *bháu . ya- [bhóya-] b. gá. vyaná. vyapía:. vyabhá . vya-

'relating to cows' 'praise-gerundive' 'float-gerundive' 'be-gerundive'

(

ápra:tΊ

[-son, +stiff v.f., + spread glottis]

[-son, +stiff v.f., -spread glottis]

Voiced: á-bhed I [-son, -stiff v.f., -spread glottis]

ábhet I [-son, +stiff v.f., -spread glottis]

Now, if we assume the syllabic parsings in (91), where an obstruent is syllabified in coda position when it occurs before another obstruent, but in the onset of the following syllable when it occurs before a sonorant, we can account for the distribution of neutralization in the forms in (84) (from Steriade 1987): (91)

Stop-sonorant clusters are tautosyllabic: dagh-ma- -» da. ghmarurudh-ré —> ru . ru . dhré vivid-ré -> vi. vi. dré Obstruent - obstruent clusters are heterosyllabic: ra:dh-syá- -> ra:dh . syá- (-> (by (88)) -» ra:t. syá- ) gr-na-th-ti gj·. nath . ti (-> (by (88)) gf . nat. ti) vid-tá vid . tá (-> (by (88)) vit. tá)

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This analysis of deaspiration and devoicing provides evidence for the existence of complex onsets. Thus, for example, the presence of forms like those in (92), where the laryngeal features of a consonant are unaffected before a glide, is evidence for the existence of complex onsets with glides: (92)

ra:dh-yá vid-yagrath-ya-

-» -> -»

ra:. dhyávi. dyagra. thya-

*ra:t. yá*vit. ya*grat. ya-

6.2. Absence of complex onsets There is thus some evidence for the existence of complex onsets with glides in Vedic. However, there are also facts that are apparently inconsistent with the presence of complex onsets. Here we consider some of these facts: A.

(93)

Vedic meter appears to consider all intervocalic consonantal clusters as heterosyllabic regardless of the relative sonority of their constituents. Thus, in the Vedic metric system, all obstruent + sonorant clusters make position. For example, the first syllable of words of the type in (93) are metrically heavy: a. putráh b. put. ráh c. *pu. tráh

'son'

We can see this in the hendecasyllable in (94) ( , = caesura, | = cadence, L = light syllable, H = heavy syllable): (94)

LH L H , LLL I H L HH ami: t[u]va: jahati putra de:vá:h 'these gods are abandoning you, son'

(RV4.18.lib)

The cluster /tr/ in (94) makes the preceding syllable heavy. This suggests the syllabification in (93b), and not that in (93c). This holds for all intervocalic clusters, in particular clusters such as those in (95): (95)

/ty, dy, dhy, py, by, etc./

This fact seems to point to a syllabification of clusters with a glide in which the first member is a coda of the preceding syllable, thus making it heavy.

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

B.

711

Evidence for the same type of syllabification is provided by the reduplicated aorist. This verbal form is characterized by the fixed prosodie template in (96) with the reduplicated prefix heavy and the root syllable light. If the préfixai syllable is not heavy by position, the template is satisfied by lengthening its vowel as shown in (97). A consonantal cluster blocks this lengthening, as shown in (98):

(96)

[¿Prefix - aRoot]

(97)

á-ni:nas-am (nas 'be lost') á-bu:bhuv-ah (bhu:'be')

á-ji:jan-am (jan 'beget') á-ci:krs-am (kars 'plough')

(98)

á-cukrudh-at (kraudh 'be angry') á-susruv-at (srau 'hear')

á-titras-an (tras 'be terrified') a-dudruv-at (drau 'run')

The short vowel in the reduplicated syllable in the forms in (98) shows that clusters of rising sonority make the preceding syllable heavy. This fact hints at a syllabification of clusters of rising sonority in which the first member is a coda of the preceding syllable, thus making it heavy. Clusters ending with a glide also behave this way, as shown in (99): (99)

C.

(100)

á-didyut-at (dyaut 'shine') vivyath-ah (vyath 'waver')

sisvap-ah (svap 'sleep') á-sisyad-at (syand 'move on')

According to Wackernagel (1896: 278), Kurylowicz (1948: 199), the ancient Sanskrit grammarians prescribe the following rules of syllabification: a. A single consonant is the onset of the following syllable: ta. pasb. In the same way, the last consonant of a bisegmental cluster. tap . ta-, put. ra-, vid . yac. The last two consonants of a cluster of 3 or more members are syllabified as part of the onset of the following syllable when the last consonant is a sibilant (s, s, s), or a sonorant (r, 1, n): astam . psi:t, can . drá d. If the cluster contains a geminate, it is divided between the two syllables: ak . ks i-, ag . gra-, ark . ka-

Rule (b) explicitly states that bisegmental clusters, and in particular also clusters of rising sonority such as -tr-, -dy-, are heterosyllabic. Observe, however, that according to (c), in the case of polysegmental clusters, we can have

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complex onsets when the final part of the cluster is of rising sonority.33 The significance of this will become clear in section 7. D.

Saussure (1889: 426-427) observes that Sanskrit seems to display a systematic confusion between single stops and geminated stops before sonorant consonants. Saussure nicely describes the Sanskrit situation in the following way:

"Devant liquide, nasale ou semi-consonne, les catégories de la consonne double et de la consonne simple sont absolument confondues en sanskrit. Etant donnés les composés sara-trayam (trois flèches) et sarad-trayam (trois automnes), nous croyons devoir en Europe observer la differérence étymologique dans l'orthographe, écrire l'un saratrayam et le second sarattrayam. Si nous consultons la tradition indigène, nous apprenons qu'il faut écrire: a. D'après nombre de manuscripts dans les deux cas saratrayam. Aucune occlusive n'est marquée double devant [r, w]. b. D'après certains Prätisäkhyas: dans les deux cas sarattrayam. Aucune occlusive n'est marquée simple devant [r, w], c. D'après Panini (8, 4, 47; cf. avec critique 48 et 50-52): dans les deux cas saratrayam ou dans le deux cas sarattrayam. Emploi à volonté de la lettre double ou simple devant [r, w]. Cette dernière doctrine, pour etre fidèlement rapportée, doit plutôt se formuler comme suit: toute occlusive est supposée simple devant [r, w], mais on peut toujours la redoubler." The reasons for this systematic doubling before a sonorant will be discussed in the next section. For now, let us focus on the fact that there is systematic confusion between single stops and geminated stops before sonorant consonants. Saussure argues that this systematic confusion is due to the syllabification of clusters obstruent + sonorant in an intervocalic context as heterosyllabic sequences. Thus he proposes that we have the two syllabifications in (101) which according to him are not phonetically contrastive. (101) a. ...a + tra... -> ...at. ra... b. ...ad + tra... -> (assimilation) -» ...at + tra... -> ...at. tra... Thus, the absence of a contrast between single consonants and etymological geminates before a sonorant suggests that a cluster obstruent + sonorant is not syllabified in the same complex onset, but is heterosyllabic (see next section and note 36 for further analysis of these cases).

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

713

6. Ambisyllabicity in Vedic

We are thus faced with an apparent contradiction for clusters of rising sonority. There is evidence that they are syllabified as complex onsets; however, there is also evidence that the first consonant is syllabified as the coda of the preceding syllable. The behavior of clusters involving a voiced aspirate followed by a palatal glide, such as those in (102), clearly illustrates this apparent problem. When a voiced aspirate appears before a sonorant, the high vocoid in this case, it remains unaffected by laryngeal neutralization, but it makes the preceding syllable heavy. This indicates that the voiced aspirate is at the same time part of the onset - it escapes laryngeal neutralization - and part of the coda - it makes the preceding syllable heavy. (102) rdhyate krúdhyati daghya:s budhyate rábhya-

'thrive-PS' 'be angry-PR' 'reach to-AO' 'know-PS' 'take hold-GD'

The same holds for the clusters labio-velar high vocoid + palatal high vocoid in (103) (=78) (obviously only in their disyllabic scansion (cf. note 30)): (103) gávyanávyapla:vya- [Skr.] bhavyadivyá-

'relating to cows' 'praise-gerundive' 'float-gerundive' 'be-gerundive' 'heavenly'

( V C C y V

X X X X X I I I II V C C i V

peak assign. & resyll.

-> V C C i y V

onset incorp.

σ-merger blocked 11

9. Root and word-initial consonantal clusters and Lindeman's Law

We have thus far considered the behavior of clusters containing a glide in word-internal position. In this section, we consider the behavior of these clusters in word-initial position and observe that they behave differently. Lindeman (1965) studied the behavior of obstruent-sonorant word-initial sequences in roots. He observed that post-consonantal sonorants in this context

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729

surface as syllabic peaks only if the root appears as a monosyllable. If the root appears in a disyllabic or polysyllabic word, for example when it is inflected as in (134a) or the first member of a compound as in (134b), the post-consonantal sonorant is not syllabic after heavy syllables or in absolute initial position: (134) after heavy syllables or in absolute initial position: a. svábhis (cf s[u]ván in the same position) dyúbhis (cf. d[i]yaus in the same position) svá:na:m (cf. s[u]vás in the same position) tváya (cf. t[u]va:- in the same position) b. dyu-ks a(cf. d[i]yaus in the same position) svá:-pada (cf. s[u]vá: in the same position) tvá:m-ka:ma (cf. t[u]va- in the same position)

'dog-inst.pl.' 'sky-inst. pi.' 'own-gen. pi.' 'you-inst. sg.' 'heavenly' 'dog foot' 'longing for you'

The same holds for di- or polysyllabic roots in (135) where no syllabic alternants of the onset high vocoid are attested: (135) svásura svásarsva:du

'father-in-law' 'sister' 'sweet'

never *suvásura never *suvásarnever *suva:du

The following roots display alternations in the syllabic status of onset high vocoids:39 (136) a. Pronominals and numerals: tvá/tuvá 'you' tva-/tuva'many a one' (unaccented) syá-/siyá'that' tyá/tiyá'these' svá-/suvá'own' dvá-/duvá'two' dvíh/duvih 'two' (in compounds and derivation) b. Adverbial particles: svah/suvah 'tomorrow' jyók/jiyók 'long' hyáh/hiyáh 'yesterday' c. Radical nouns with paradigmatic ablaut: dyau/diyau/div 'sky, day' (cf. dyúbhis) svan-/suvan-/sun- 'dog'(cf. svábhis)

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Also in this group: duváira: 'door' If root-initial clusters in monosyllabic words are considered more carefully, one observes that not all of them show alternations in the syllabic status of high vocoids (cf. Seebold 1972). Thus roots such as the following never display alternations: cyavjvardhvandhvansmyaks vyac/vicvyathsva:/su:svap/supsvan-

'move, stir' 'be hot' 'sound' 'scatter' 'be situated 'extend' 'waver' 'swell' 'sleep' 'sound'

Observe that the roots in (137) are all verbal. The roots that display alternations are either non-verbal (nominal/adjectival) or if verbal, the relevant cluster appears before a vocalic extension/suffix.40 I assume that the presence of a complex onset with a glide indicates that the constraint in (68) is deactivated. The generalization seems to be that (68) can always be deactivated in verbal roots and that it can be deactivated in a nonverbal root in word-initial position in a polysyllabic word. Let us consider the case of verbal roots first. There is evidence that all types of complex onsets must be allowed in initial position in verbal roots in Vedic. This evidence is provided by Steriade (1982, 1988). In these works, she argues that complex onsets were allowed in Sanskrit based on her analysis of perfect reduplication in this language. Consider the reduplication pattern in (139): (139) Perfect reduplication in Sanskrit: taud tu-tud a. C raudh ru-rudh ja-jfta: b. stop+sonorant jña: du-druv drau si-smi c. s+sonorant smai srath sa-srath ksam ca-ksam d. stop+s psa: pa-psa: e. s+stop stau tu-stu scaut cu-scut

'push' 'obstruct' 'know' run 'smile' 'slacken' 'endure' 'devour' 'praise' 'drip'

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

f. stop+s+son.

ksnau

cu-ksnu

731

'whet'

Steriade argues that the reduplicating prefix is obtained by copying the root and then adjusting the prefix according to certain parameters. The parameters active in the case of Sanskrit perfect reduplication determine that the reduplicating prefix, after undergoing syncope, must surface as a light syllable with a simple onset. If the base has a complex onset, the simple onset of the reduplicating prefix is obtained by deleting all the members of the complex onset except the first one, as shown in (140): (140) draupsaksnau

-» (syncope) -» (syncope n/a) -> (syncope)

-» dru-» psa-» ksnu-

-» (onset reduction) -» (onset reduction) -» (onset reduction)

—» du—> pa—» ku-

The issue then is to account for the cases in (139e) where the first consonant of the onset is deleted. Steriade argues that the forms in (141) possess a different onset structure: (141) a. smi b. stu

si-smi tu-stu

She proposes that the cluster /sm/ involves a complex onset as in (142), /st/ involves a specially syllabified segment as in (143). The difference is that /sm1 has a rising sonority profile, whereas /st/ is of falling sonority. Only /sm/ can form a complex onset according to the sonority sequencing principle according to which, in a syllable, sonority must increases from the beginning to the peak and then fall from the peak to the end (see Selkirk 1982). The /st/ cluster cannot form a complex onset, and the /s/ is therefore either left unsyllabified as proposed in Steriade (1982, 1988) (see (143b)) or syllabified as an appendix as proposed in Calabrese (1996, section 2.3) (see (143a)).41 (142)

σ

X s

X m

X

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Andrea Calabrese

b.

The reduplication process is sensitive to the different structures in (142-143) producing the derivations in (144a-b). In the case of (144a), we obtain the simple onset of the prefix by deleting the second member of the complex onset. In the case of (144b), we obtain the simple onset of the prefix, if we assume that appendices (or unsyllabified segments) are disallowed in the reduplicating prefix. (144) a. [smi] -> [smi]-[smi] -> [si]-[smi] b. s [tu] s[tu]-s[tu] -> [tu]-[stu] The behavior of roots like the following, which pattern like /smi/, is therefore evidence that the root-initial consonant-glide clusters are possible complex onsets: (145) khya: dhya: tyaj svaj dhvans/dhvns

'see' 'think' 'forsake' 'embrace' 'scatter'

ka-kyá:-thúr [cakyá:thúr] dha-dhyá: -u [dadhyáu] ta-tyaj-é sa-svaj-é dha-dhvns-é [dadhvasé]

To account for the fact that complex onsets with glides are allowed in rootinitial position in verbs, I propose that the constraint against glide-final complex onsets is deactivated in verbal roots. This deactivation may be related to the requirement that roots be monosyllabic (see Steriade 1988 on the requirement that Sanskrit roots be monosyllabic; see also Calabrese 1996: section 2.3). In fact, if the prevocalic high vocoids of a verbal root were syllabified as peaks, the root would be disyllabic and, therefore, the requirement of root monosyllabicity would be violated. This accounts for the syllabification of the rootinitial cluster of the verbal roots. Crucially the constraint against complex onsets with glides is deactivated only in root-internal position. Therefore, the constraint is active when there is

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

733

resyllabification across morphological boundaries. This is the case of the resyllabification of the zero grade of verbal roots, as in (146): ciyántu suvé súvate yuváti viyánti viyántu

'gather-IPV' 'generate-PR' 'generate-PR' 'unite-PR' 'enjoy-PR' (but also vyánti) 'enjoy-IPV (but also vyántu)

cai sau/su: id. yau vai/vi: id.

or also in cases like the following: (147) pipriyé sisriyé pipyuh mimyuh

prai/pri: srai pai mai

'please-PF-Md' 'resort-PF-Md' 'swell' 'fix-'

In all of these cases there is a morphological boundary between the high vocoid and the following vowel, and thus we are dealing with a process of resyllabification as shown in (148-149): ci - ántu su - é sú - a . te yu - áti vi - ánti vi - ántu (149) p i - p r i - é si - sri - é pi - pi - uh mi - mi - uh

cai sau/su: id. yau vai/vi: id.

'gather-IPV' 'generate-PR' 'generate-PR' 'unite-PR' 'enjoy-PR' 'enjoy-IPV'

prai/pri: srai pai mai

'please-PF-Md' 'resort-PF-Md' 'swell' 'fix-'

Thus we can account for the contrasting behavior between the forms in (150a) and those in (150b) which, although segmentally similar in their initial part, display different morphological structure: (150) a. ciyantu (ci + antu) 'gather'

vs.

b. cyavate (cyav + ate) 'move'

a. viyanti (vi + anti) 'enjoy'

vs.

b. vyáyati (vya + yati) 'envelop'

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Calabrese

The fact is that the constraint against complex onsets with glides is active in the case of the forms in (150a) because in this case we are dealing with resyllabifícation across morphological boundaries, whereas in the forms in (150b) the constraint is deactivated since it is contained inside the verbal root. An immediate explanation for why complex onsets with glides are allowed in a form like [cyavate] but not in a form like [ciyantu] is thus obtained. At this point it would be important to study the behavior of the initial clusters of verbal roots in medial position to see what happens in this environment after heavy syllables. Crucially we need a form in the full grade so that the initial cluster is exhaustively syllabified inside the root. Given the hypothesis that the constraint in (68) is deactivated in verbal roots, we would expect a nonsyllabic treatment of a high vocoid in this cluster. Unfortunately, I was able to fmd only a few cases all involving the intensive participle of the root /svas/sus/ listed in (151): (151) sa:svasat sa:svasatas sa:svasatadbhis

svas/sus

'blow-PT-intensive'

In all of these cases, however, the high vocoid is syllabified in onset position; it is not treated as a syllabic nucleus. This fact can be used in support of the hypothesis presented here that the constraint in (68) is deactivated inside verbal roots. Let us turn now to non-verbal roots. In the case of the forms in (152-154), we can assume that there is no deactivation of the constraint as proposed for verbal roots. This is shown by the syllabic treatment of the high vocoid in these forms: (152) Pronominals tu. á tu . asi. át i . ásu . ádu. ádu . ih

and numerals: 'you' 'many a one' (unaccented) 'that' 'these' 'own' 'two' 'two' (in compounds and derivation)

(153) Adverbial particles:42 su . vah 'tomorrow' j i . ók 'long' h i . áh 'yesterday'

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735

(154) Radical nouns with paradigmatic ablaut: di. aus 'sky, day' s u . an 'dog' The issue now is what happens when non-verbal roots such as those in (152154) occur in polysyllabic words. It is well known that the word-initial syllable is a position of prosodie prominence, and that languages often display more phonological contrast in this position than in other positions (cf. Steriade 1994). An increase in contrast in a given position indicates that constraints are deactivated in that position. We can therefore propose that the constraint against complex onsets is deactivated in the word-initial syllable. I assume, though, that crucially, a monosyllable is not counted as either initial or final, and, therefore, the constraint against complex onsets is active in it. This gives the correct results allowing the complex onset in the case of the polysyllabic words in (134-135), but not in the case of the monosyllabic words in (152-154). This accounts directly for the so-called Lindeman's Law stating that syllabic treatment of post-consonantal high vocoids in word-initial sequences occurs only if the word is monosyllabic, but not polysyllabic. An outstanding question remains to be answered however. Why does the constraint seem to be active in the word-initial syllable of the polysyllabic verbal forms in (146)? I do not have a clear solution to this problem at this moment other than restricting the deactivation of the constraint in (68) only to the word-initial syllable of non-verbal words. 43,44

10. Conclusions

In this chapter I have proposed an account for Sievers' Law. The pivotal assumption of my analysis is that in intervocalic clusters ending in a sonorant, the first consonant is ambisyllabic, if the preceding vowel is short. Evidence for this assumption is found in Vedic manuscripts where precisely this consonant is doubled. We can assume that graphic doubling was a way of representing ambisyllabicity. The fact that the first consonant of such clusters is ambisyllabic explains why the constraint against onset clusters ending with a glide, which otherwise characterizes Vedic, does not apply in this case. The first consonant of such clusters is in fact also the coda of the preceding syllable, and the UAC of Schein and Steriade (1988) prevents a constraint from applying to segments which are not exhaustively contained in the same syllable. If the preceding syllable is heavy, however, the ambisyllabic structure is not created and, therefore, the constraint against complex onsets with glides can apply and thus blocks such onsets in that context. We thus have an explanation for the alternations due to Sievers' Law.

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Andrea Calabrese

We also have seen that an underlying distinction between glides and high vowels must be postulated for Vedic. This implies that two processes conspire to create Sievers' Law cases. One is glide formation that solves hiatus configurations with high vowels followed by another vowel. Another is a process of vocalization - i.e., assignment of nuclear status - to high vocoids which eliminates underlying glides in post-consonantal position. Finally, we considered word-initial clusters ending with a glide. I have argued that the constraint against complex onsets ending with glides is deactivated in word-initial position and in verbal roots. If we assume that monosyllables do not count as initial syllables, we have an account for Lindeman's Law which states that Sievers' alternations in word-initial clusters are found only in monosyllables.

Acknowledgements This chapter is part of a larger research project on the phonology of Indo-European on which I am working with Morris Halle. I thank Morris Halle, TienHsim Hsin, Jay Jasanoff, Calvert Watkins, Bert Vaux and an anonymous reviewer for comments and suggestions on previous drafts of this chapter. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes 1.

2.

3.

4.

This chapter was written in 1996 for the Conference: The Phonology of the World's Languages: The Syllable (OUP, Pézenas 1996). A more recent article of mine (Calabrese 1997) deals with some of the Vedic facts discussed here, but thoroughly revises the theoretical framework in which their analysis was couched, although not the gist of it. In Calabrese (1997), it is shown that Optimality Theory provides a better way of dealing with the resyllabification processes involved in the Vedic facts. It is also shown, however, that OT cannot deal adequately with morphophonemic rules such as zero grade syncope, or fossilized phonological processes such as change of syllabic nasals into [a]. Developing further this distinction, Calabrese (1997) argues that OT is not a theory of the whole phonological component, as currently assumed, but simply a theory of one of the modules of this component, the repair module, which in the case of syllable structure deals with resyllabification processes. As we will see in section 8, the presence of the active constraint in (2) also triggers a resyllabification process in which onset glides are turned into nuclear elements, i.e., high vowels, in the same context. In the first part of the chapter, I will focus only on word-medial consonantal clusters. Word-initial clusters behave differently from word-medial clusters - they are the domain of the so-called Lindeman's Law. These clusters will be discussed in section 9. In addition to marking statements, there are also constraints which I call prohibitions. Prohibitions stipulate that certain configurations - featural or syllabic - are absolutely excluded. For example, the configuration in (i) is impossible because it involves a pair of actions that are physiologically incompatible:

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

737

(i) *[+high, +low] 5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

This is the constraint that plays a fundamental role in our analysis. There is independent motivation for this constraint. Its existence is for example required in many languages, such as Latin, that do not have complex onsets with glides as the final member. Furthermore, Calabrese (1994) shows that this constraint plays a fundamental role in the phonology of Gothic. Along the same line, Romani & Calabrese (in press) and Calabrese & Romani (1998) discuss an Italian aphasie patient that has major problems with complex onsets ending with glides, but not with other types of complex onsets. Cases such as this are usually accounted for by resorting to a constraint requiring the maximization of onset structure (see Selkirk 1982 or Clements & Keyser 1983, among others). Here I assume that this constraint is just a corollary of the independently needed syllable contact law in (9) and is therefore not needed. At the same time the syllable contact law in (9) could be derived by other constraints dealing with syllabic complexity as proposed by Clements (1990). I will not attempt to do that here. The absence of hiatus configurations is often accounted for by assuming a constraint against onsetless syllables (cf. McCarthy & Prince 1993a, among others). Onsetless syllables are common in word-initial position in Vedic (e.g. ita 'go-PP' [i-] zero grade of root /ai/, rdántu 'stir-IPV' [r]-zero grade of root /ar/). I assume that the presence of such onsetless syllables is evidence that the UG constraint against onsetless syllables is deactivated, and that thus it does not play any role in disallowing hiatus configurations. (Observe also that the hiatus constraint in (14) is obviously connected to the syllable constraint in (9) and could be reduced to it. I will not attempt to do this here.) If the first vowel in (17) is non-high, the application of onset incorporation may be blocked because of a constraint against non-high vowels in syllable margins, and other repair procedures may apply instead. I will not discuss cases of this type in this chapter. A further rule could apply in this case splitting the ambisyllabic segment as shown in (i). Evidence for this rule should be established on a language-specific basis. Thus for example, there is no evidence that such a rule applies in French or Vedic. (i)

σ I 1 R I 1 Ν

σ

ι ι Ν ι I Χ

çt

ji

/

X α 10.

11.

R

κκ /'

σ ι I R ι I Ν ι I -> Χ

The homorganic glides [w] and [i[] are inserted in the context CLu/üV only in certain varieties of French, such as Belgian French (C. Boeckx, p.c.). In standard French, no such glides are inserted in that context (cf. Tranel 1987: 120), thus the relevant forms in (20) are pronounced [klue], [prue], [eblui]. The peculiar behavior of rounded vocoids in standard French may be due to the fact that their syllabification as part of the onset is somewhat marked. In many languages, rounded glides are nuclear (see note 22 on Italian). The same may be true for standard French (see Tranel 1987: 117). Limits of space prevent me from discussing this issue in greater depth; therefore, I focus on the French varieties, such as the Belgian one, described in (20) where all of the high vocoids behave in the same way. The constraint in (21) is also needed to account for another fact. French possesses a syncope rule that deletes medial reduced vowels when preceded by a consonant that can

738

Andrea Calabrese be resyllabified in the adjacent context, for example as the coda of the preceding syllable in the cases in (i): (i)

grandement phonétiquement samedi

[grâdmâ] [fonetikmä} [samdi]

'greatly 'phonetically' 'Saturday'

vs.

brusquement fixement vendredi

[brüskcemä] [fixscemä] [vâdrœdi]

'abruptly' 'fixedly' 'Friday'

Observe now that this process of vowel syncope does not apply in cases in which the vowel is followed by a liquid + glide sequence: (ii)

12.

atelier Richelieu nous chanterions vous aideriez

[atoelye] [rijcelyo] [nujatœryô] [vuzedœrye]

'workshop' last name 'we would sing' 'you would help'

There is a simple account for the non-application of the syncope rule in these cases. If syncope were to apply, there would be no way of resyllabifying the consonant. It cannot be in coda position because of the syllable contact constraint (9). Nor can it be resyllabified as the onset of the following syllable, since this would lead to the creation of a complex onset disallowed by the constraint in (21). Probably also some criteria of economy govern the evaluation of derivations. In Calabrese (1995), I have argued that whenever we may have two possible derivations of the same output form: one involving two steps-i.e., 1) the generation of a disallowed form by a given rule; and 2) the repair of the disallowed form by a simplification procedure-and the other just involving the blocking of the relevant rule, the second derivation is chosen. I obtained this result by assuming the principle of economy of derivation in (i) (cf. Chomsky 1991, 1992, Kiparsky 1982; see also Dell 1973, Stampe 1973, and Myers 1991): (i) Among alternative maximally simple grammars select that which has the shortest derivations.

13. 14.

By (i), we are forced to adopt the shortest derivation which involves preventing the process from creating the disallowed structure. I refer the reader to Schein & Steriade (1986) for a criticism of Hayes' (1986) Linking constraint which the UAC replaces. Shortly after the publication of Sievers' Law, Osthoff (1884) proposed that this alternation was valid through the entire resonant system "Unstressed (non-epenthetic) i, u, m, rj, ζ and I preceding a vowel are consonantal following a short syllable; in their place appear iy, uw, mm, nn, ¿r, and II following a long syllable, regardless of the placement of word stress." This extension of the alternation to the entire resonant system is also proposed by Edgerton (1934, 1943). He summarizes his views as follows: "IE prevocalic iy and y, uw and w, after a consonant were each a single phoneme, varying automatically under fixed phonetic conditions (essentially, y and w after a light syllable, iy and uw after a heavy). This was equally true of liquids and nasals (rr/r, nn/n, etc.)." In Seebold (1972), however, this extension of Sievers' Law to include all sonorants is questioned. After a reconsideration of the evidence, he states (p. 51): "The situation here is not the same as that of the glides (particularly of.y). Regularities are clearly evident in the latter case, although their implications are controversial. In the case of sonorants, there are only indications of parallel behavior. The question arises whether, along

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

15.

16.

739

with Edgerton, complete parallelism should be assumed as representing the original conditions and the differentiated state considered secondary or whether the syllabic values and variants of the sonorants require a separate assessment (possibly involving completely different factors). Edgerton based his study exclusively on the (undeniable) parallelism with the glides while disregarding the (equally undeniable) differences" (translation from Murray 1988). There are many exceptions to Sievers' Law in the Rigvedic text, with syllabic variants appearing after light syllables and non syllabic variants appearing after heavy syllables. The issue of the exceptions to Sievers' Law will be discussed below (section 8) (see Kiparsky 1973, Calabrese 1996 for more discussion). Observe that roots such as vai/vix prai/pri:, svaVsu: with a long root vowel have long high vowels in the zero grade. Root long high vowels are due to the presence of the socalled laryngeal H in root-final position. In the analysis proposed in Calabrese (1996: section 4), H in Vedic is an empty nuclear position which, when not resyllabified as the onset of the following vowel, is merged with a preceding nucleus, thus creating long nuclear vowels and sonorants. However, when an H is syllabified as an onset, it is always deleted, hereby creating the context for a new resyllabification. It follows that when these roots occur before vowel-initial suffixes, as in the examples in (44), the laryngeal does not interfere with the syllabification of the high vocoid. We can see this in the following sample derivation: σ σ I ι 1 I R R ι 1I I Ν Ν I l \ X X -> Χ ι 1 ιI 1 1 a η a + (zero grade)

σ σ σ ι ι ι I I R R ι II I Ν Ν ι I Ν χ χ Χ ι I ι I I I i Η + a (onset incor.

μh

/ χ Ι I ν

χ ι I η (7)) + (merge (16))

σ I R I Ν Κ XX I I η a v i a n a ν (Η-deletion) (onset incorp (7)) + (merge (16)) (The syllabic status of [v] will be discussed later) 17.

18. 19.

The appearance of the velar stop instead of the palatal one in the base is accounted for by a synchronic rule of dissimilation which applies between dorsal stops in adjacent syllables (see also the next form where a palatal stop appears in the prefix instead of the expected velar. Cf. Steriade 1988 for further discussion of this phenomenon). The sequences /ai/, /au/ monophthongize into [e:], [o:] (see section 6.1 for some discussion). Observe that some of the forms in (51) also contain a sonorant in the onset. This sonorant is not assigned a peak, although it may be more sonorous than the sonorant in the rhyme. The failure to assign a syllabic peak to the sonorant in the onset in (51) is not

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due to the syllable structure that we could potentially obtain in this case. In fact, if we assigned syllable peak to the onset sonorant, we would obtain the forms in the rightmost column in (51) which are potentially well-formed syllables in Sanskrit. An onset may contain more than one sonorant as in the root in (i). In this case it is the rightmost one that is assigned the syllabic peak, although the first one is apparently more sonorous than the rightmost one (i) vrasc 'cut up' vysc not *ursc

21.

22.

These sonorant onset clusters are typically found only in the initial position of verbal roots (see Calabrese 1996: section 6 for more discussion). As argued there, in this case there is a special rule changing the labiovelar into a non-sonorant consonant in root initial position before another sonorant. Assuming that this analysis is correct, the behavior of roots such as those in (i) is not a problem since we would not be dealing with two sonorants, but only with one. By assuming the complex nuclear structure in (54-55), I am trying to capture the distinction between nuclear head (=N°), i.e., a full vowel, and a nuclear margin (=N'), i.e. an on- or off-glide. This distinction is surely needed in the case of the prevocalic glides of Spanish, which, as shown by Harris (1985) belong to the nucleus position, and in the case of the prevocalic glide [w] in the rising diphthong [wo] of Italian. For the latter case, Maretta (1988) forcibly shows that the glide component of [wo] behaves as a vowel differently than the glide component of [ye] which behaves as a consonant; for example, before [wo] we find the allomorph of the definite article which otherwise appears before vowels: l'uovo [wovo] 'the egg' (cf. l'ovulo 'the amanita cesarea (a type of mushroom')) vs. lo ieri [veri] 'the yesterday' (cf. lo stivale 'the boot', lo gnomone 'the gnomon' (gn=[ijq])). See also Tranel 1987 for French [wa]. There is also evidence that more nuclear structure is needed in the case of postvocalic glides. For example, Halle & Vergnaud (1987: 193) argue that the postvocalic sonorants of Lithuanian belong to nuclear position, insofar as the sequence of vowel + following sonorant behaves like long vowels and the sonorant part can carry stress and tonal features. I assume the complex nuclear structure in (54) for Vedic to capture the process of "vocalization", i.e., the process by which sonorants are assigned syllabic peak in zero grade, in the most straightforward way (see Calabrese 1996 for more discussion and evidence).' [n] in nucleus head position becomes [a] because of an independent rule given in (i): Ν (i) [η] -> [a] / The phonological rule in (i) is quite striking and deserves some discussion. There are compelling reasons to adopt it. First of all, only if one assumes it, it is possible to have a systematic and unitary analysis of the behavior of postvocalic sonorants in zero grade. The zero grade of roots such as those in (ii) which contain a postvocalic sonorant can be accounted for only by assuming a rule that deletes the root vowel /a/ as discussed in the text: (ii) baudh pais vardh dhvar

zero grade budh'wake' pis 'crush' vydh'grow' dhvj'injure'

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

741

If we do not have a rule such as (i), we have to assume that a totally different rule deals with the zero grade of roots with a postvocalic nasal such as /syand/. Since the outcome of the zero grade of the sequences [an/am] is actually [a], one could propose a rule that deletes a postvocalic nasal in zero grade, i.e. the rule in (iii): (iii)

X -> 0 / a I [+nasal]

in certain morphological environments

Rule (iii) is as stipulative as (i). In addition, its context of application strikingly overlaps with that of the syncope rule dealing with the zero grade forms in (ii) indicating an obvious loss of generality in the analysis. Secondly, there is strong evidence in support of (i) from the behavior of the zero grade of nasal-final morphemes (roots and suffixes). For example, this is the case of the suffix /-van-/ which has two variants in zero grade, /-va-/ and /-vn-/, the first occurring in preconsonantal position and the second in prevocalic position, as shown in (iv), where we are dealing with forms containing the zero grade of the suffix /-van-/ which appears in the filli grade in (v): (iv) (v)

a. grávnas gráivani

'pressing stone-abl./gen. sg.' 'loc. sg.'

b. graivabhis

'inst.pl.'

If we assume a stage with a syllabic nasal which is later changed into [a] by (i), there is no problem in accounting for the alternations in (iv). In particular, in the case of (iva) we are dealing with the resyllabification of the prevocalic syllabic nasal as an onset as shown in (via): (vi)

a. gra:-van-as —> zero grade (50) —> gra:-vç-as —> resyllabification - » gra:vnas b. gra:-van-bhis-> zero grade (50) gra:-vç-bhis —> (i) - » graivabhis

If we account for the zero grade of the sequences [an/am] by assuming the rule in (iii), there is no way to explain the form in (iva) as shown in (vii), and we would be forced to assume that in this case a totally different rule is applying to this sequence, a solution which is obviously implausible. (vii)

gra:-van-as - » (iii) - » gra:-va-as —> resyllabification -> *gra:va:s

In conclusion, there is evidence that rule (i) is needed. This rule, although quite idiosyncratic, is not implausible and probably involves the "telescopic" fossilization of various phonological processes which eliminated nuclear nasals diachronically. See Calabrese (1997) for more discussion of this rule and for the problems it poses to standard optimality theory. Observe that prenuclear sonorants cannot be part of the nucleus thus forming rising diphthongs such as /ya, wa, la, ra, na, ma/, as can be argued for the sequences /ye, we/ in Spanish (cf. Harris 1985) and the sequence /wo/ in Italian (cf. Maretta 1988. Also see note 21). Thus they cannot be syllabified as in (i):

Andrea Calabrese

742

(i) I R n\ / X I y

n

\

X

X I a

I j

The reason for not adopting the structure in (i) is that sequences sonorant + vowel never count as heavy as one would expect if the prevocalic sonorant were part of the nucleus. In addition, there is evidence that shows that prenuclear high vocoids must be considered as being part of the onset, as is shown by the behavior of prevocalic high vocoids in Sievers' Law. Thus in Vedic we need the syllabification in (ii), instead of that in (i): (ii)

σ

X

X

I y 24. 25. 26.

X I a

I j

It is assumed here that syncope applies before «syllabification redistributes consonants across morpheme boundaries (see Calabrese 1996 for more discussion of this point). Syllabifying only [s] as the coda of the preceding syllable would not solve the problem either. In Calabrese 1996, I argued against the traditional hypothesis that sonorants are vocalized by a peak assignment procedure applying from right to left to sonorants in interconsonantal position, according to the rule in (i) (from Schindler 1977, his (1)): (i) +son -syll

[+syii]

/

jt-sy'Hj

jHymj

(iterative from right to left) For example the traditional model fails to account for the syllabification of the zero grade of verbs with «α-infix. Verbs of this type are characterized by a nasal infix -Μαinserted before the last consonant of the root (or after the syllabic head, if we assume that -na- is inserted in the zero grade of the root.): (ii)

root

bhid-

bhi-ná-d-ti

[bhinátti]

'split-Act.PR'

This infixed -na- in turn undergoes zero grade before accented endings. The traditional model assumes that the peak assignment rule in (i) applies from right to left to the string

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

743

which is the output of zero grade. Therefore, the syllabification in (iii) for the /-n-J infix is predicted: (iii)

σ

Χ

Χ

Χ

Χ

bh

y

η

d

+ [ suff ]

The traditional model deals with this wrong prediction by stipulating that the infix -«can never be vocalized. In the approach proposed here, there is no problem in accounting for the behavior of the /na/-infix. Let us take the form bhinttá 'split-IPV'. We begin with the zero grade of the root in which we infix -na- as shown in (iv): (iv)

σ

χ

χ

bh

σ

χ i

-

>

χ

d bh (na-infix)

χ i-

σ

χ

χ η

σ

χ a-

d-

+

χ

χ

t

a

After the syncope of the infixai /a/ we are left with the configuration in (v): (ν)

σ

σ

σ

/R /

/

/ X

bh

NI I X X

X η

X

X

d + t (syncope)

a

There is no sonorant in the rhyme of the affected syllable, therefore the syllable structure is deleted, as shown in (vi):

744

Andrea Calabrese

σ Α

σ h

/

Á /

/

/

X I 1 bh

Ν I Χ Ι I i

χ I 1 η

Χ ι I d

+

ι χ I I a

χ ι I t

At this point /η/ can be syllabified as the coda of the preceding syllable and subsequently incorporates into its nucleus by (54). /d/ can also be syllabified as a coda of the preceding syllable. Therefore the resyllabification module succeeds in resyllabifying the sequence; no rule of peak assignment needs to apply to the nasal. σ

σ

L

Á

η

/

/» V

Χ I I bh

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

ι χ ι I i

χ I I η

/

Χ ι I d

/

+

Χ ι I t

Ν' Ν I Χ ι I a

A further rule of voicing assimilation accounts for the surface form. See Calabrese (1996) for other arguments against the traditional approach. Crucially configurations such as that in (64) must be allowed in an initial stage of syllabification (see Calabrese 1996 for evidence). Thus, we have to say that the constraint in (64) is not active in the initial stages of syllabification in Vedic. At a later stage the constraint in (64), however, is reactivated. The root /vai/ contains a root final laryngeal. As discussed in note 16, this laryngeal does not play any role in the syllabification of this root before a vowel initial suffix such as /-an/. Thus it will be omitted in the discussion of this root for the sake of simplicity. Observe that the output form in this analysis displays a violation of the syllable contact law in (9). This is a problem for this analysis. Given that this analysis will be rejected in the next section, I will not try to correct it here. All of the forms in (78) often have a trisyllabic scansion in the Rigveda (e.g. gavi(y)a, bhavi(y)a). Crucially disyllabic scansions such as those mentioned in (78) are also commonly found (cf. Seebold 1972). Our analysis is based on these disyllabic scansions. See section 8 for discussion of the variations in the syllabic scansion of high vocoids in the Rigveda. See also Calabrese (1996: sections 5 and 4.1) for more discussion of the syllabification of these forms. These forms were originally s-aorists with the shape in (i) : (i) á-ra:udh-s-t a-dha:gh-s-t á-pra:ch-s-t (eh -» t in coda position)

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

32.

745

This is the best synchronic analysis for the forms àrœ.ut, òpra:/. It is also the best analysis from the historical point of view. As mentioned in note 31, these forms morphologically involve the suffixes in (i): (i) á-ra:udh-s-t á-pra:ch-s-t (eh -> th in coda position)

33.

34.

It is not clear whether or not the suffixal elements ever surfaced since forms with these suffixes are not attested. If they did, we can hypothesize that the coda consonants underwent neutralization. Thus, also in this case, the best way to account for this neutralization would be that proposed in the text. Observe that, here, the Sanskrit grammarians also included the glides [y, v]. This holds only for classical Sanskrit. In the Vedic texts, however, [y] and [v] cannot occur in this position. In this position, high vocoids can only be syllabic peaks in Vedic. Vaux proposes that the gemination triggered by liquids and M involves a type of compensatory lengthening, occurring as the result of the incorporation of these segments into the nucleus position from coda position. This account is based on the idea that the structure of the syllable is preserved after the incorporation of the sonorant into the nucleus position. Therefore, after the nucleus incorporation occurs, a branching rhyme structure must be preserved. This branching rhyme structure is obtained by also incorporating the following consonant into the coda, as shown in (i) (R=[+sonorant]):

(i)

X X X V

35.

R

C

V

R

C

An ambisyllabic consonant is thus created. As discussed below, orthographic doubling could be a way of representing ambisyllabicity. The same analysis could be extended to Dal, if we consider /h/ a [-consonantal] sound. In this case, in fact, it would be incorporated into the nucleus as other [-consonantal] sounds are such as glides. Sibilants were not doubled after liquids. According to Vaux, this fact is to be related to the epenthesis between /r/ and sibilants prescribed by the grammarians. If epenthesis applied first, the conditions for doubling were not met. Also according to the ancient Sanskrit grammarians, there is no doubling before the yamas, which are epenthetic syllabic nasals inserted in nasal+stop clusters. We will not discuss this type of doubling further here. Bengali, for example, consistently displays gemination of consonants before sonorants, as we can see in (i) (from Chatteiji 1926: 447): (i) Jukklo

'bright'

cjokkro 'wheel'

This gemination could be considered as a way of eliminating ambisyllabicity by splitting the skeletal position of the ambisyllabic segment into two different skeletal po-

746

36.

Andrea Calabrese sitions, one syllabified as a coda of the preceding syllable and the other as the onset of the following syllable. We can now account for the systematic confusion between single and geminated stops observed by Saussure (1889) and discussed in the preceding section in different terms. Given the underlying sequences in (i), we would predict the syllabifications in (ii): (0

a.

...

(Ü)

a.

b.

b.

σ I R I Ν I X I a σ I R I Ν I Χ I a

σ I 1 R V

σ

\

n\ 1 \ X X I 1 a d

+

σ I 1 R

+

X X X I I I t r a

A vi Λ

n\ I 1 X X

/

/ X +

t

! Χ r

I χ ι I a

σ 7R ' I 1 Ν ι 1 X X

(Ill)

σ

(assim.)

37.

If we assume that ambisyllabicity was represented orthographically by doubling, there would be no way of distinguishing the two sequences in (iia) and (iib) from an orthographic point of view. Consequently, they were transcribed in the same way in the Vedic orthographic system. Therefore, we expect a systematic confusion between single and geminated stops before sonorant consonants in the Vedic manuscripts. Long stressed high vocoids, such as thematic /í:/, /ú:/ (e.g. vrki.h-type and tanúh-type nouns), are always scanned syllabically in prevocalic position. (i) nadyà: = nadía:, inst, of nadi: 'river'

38.

Observe that the underlying forms in (129) could be considered as archaic forms belonging to a stage of Vedic where neither the hiatus constraint nor constraint (68) were active. We would then have a different way of interpreting Kiparsky's proposal. One can propose in fact that, in addition to the surface forms of their own language, the metrical range of the Vedic poets also included these forms with archaic syllabification,

Sievers ' Law in Vedic

39.

which were especially used to satisfy the metrical requirements of the text. When this occurred, we obtain the pattern of variation observed above. Stressed high vocoids are always syllabic: súvar kúva

40.

747

'light/sun' 'where'

This is the case of the following verbal roots which display alternations. In them, the relevant cluster appears before a vocalic extension/suffix: (i) a. Roots with group high vocoid + a: undergoing ablaut: j[i]ya:- 'overpower' b. The optative sya\ (zero grade of as- + optative ia:-) There is however the following root, which is verbal and apparently monomorphemic but displays alternations in some of its forms: (ii)a. dyaut/dyutbut diyótanadiyuta:nám su-diyó:tman-

41.

This is also reflected in the Middle Indie outcomes of these clusters as discussed by Vaux (1992): sm st

42. 43.

'shine' 'shining' 'shine-AO' 'shining bright'

-> ->

sim th

/svid/ 'emphatic enclitic particle' is monosyllabic. Hale (1995) provides evidence that Lindeman's Law effects are not only found in words which are polysyllabic because of compounding or because of the addition of an inflectional or derivational suffix, but also by the addition of an enclitic. Thus the addition of a clitic to a monosyllable with an initial cluster consonant + glide allows the incorporation of this cluster into a complex onset in contexts where it would not otherwise be possible. Hale studies the distribution of the word dyaus 'sky' in different prosodie contexts. When it is monosyllabic and does not appear in a clitic group, the initial cluster undergoes Sievers' Law as expected. We can see this in (i) when this word appears inside the line and in line-initial position: (i) a. Line-internal position i. pári dya\m anyad i:yate (RV 1.30.19c) 'the other one travels around the sky' ii. ácha: diya\m arus ó dhu:má eti (RV 7.3.3c) 'the red smoke goes towards the sky' b. Line-initial position diyá\m án:gebhir arus ébhir i:yate (RV 1141,8b) 'he travels the sky with red limbs' However, if a clitic such as ca in (ii) is attached to this monosyllabic word, the initial cluster can be treated as a complex onset as we can see in (ii): (ii)

tad dyaus ca dhattá:m pjthiví: ca devi: (RV4.51.1 Id) 'Let heaven and the divine earth provide that'

748

44.

Andrea Calabrese

We can account for this by assuming that enclitics are rebracketed as being part of the phonological word as proposed for Italian by Benincà & Cinque (1991). See Calabrese (1996) for arguments against Schindlers' (1977) where it is proposed that the syllabic treatment of post-consonantal sonorants occurs only if the following vowel is in the last syllable of the word.

References Arnold, E.V. 1905 Vedic metre in its historical development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Benincà, P. & G. Cinque 1991 Su alcune differenze tra enclisi e proclisi. Omaggio a Gianfranco Folena. Padova: Editoriale Programma. 2313-2326. Calabrese, A. 1988 Towards a theory of phonological alphabets. PhD dissertation. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1994 Sievers' law in Gothic: A synchronic analysis with some notes on its diachronic development. The linguistic review 11, 149-194. 1995 A constraint-based theory of phonological markedness and simplification procedures. Linguistic inquiry 2, 373-463. 1996 The syllabification of sonorants in Vedic. Ms. Harvard University. 1997 Zero grade and Sievers' Law in Vedic: Resyllabification in a revised constraintand-repair approach. Ms. University of Connecticut. Calabrese, A. & S.J. Keyser 1996 A study of Bartholomae's Law in Sanskrit. Ms. Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Calabrese, A. & C. Romani 1998 Palatalizations in an aphasie patient: theoretical consequences of phonological disturbances in aphasia. Ms. University of Connecticut and University of Birmingham. Chatterji, S.J. 1926 The origin and the development of the Bengali language. Calcutta. Repr. London: Allen & Unwin. Chomsky, N. 1991 Some notes on economy of derivation and representation. In R. Freidin (ed.), Principles and parameters in comparative grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: ΜΓΓ Press, 417-454. 1992 A minimalist program for linguistic theory. In K.Hale & S.J. Keyser (eds.), The view from building 20. Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger. Cambridge: MIT Press. 1-52 Clements, G.N. 1990 The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In J. Kingston & M. Beckmann (eds.), Papers in laboratory phonology 1. Cambridge: Academic Press, 283-333. Clements, G.N. & S.J. Keyser 1983 CV phonology: a generative theory of the syllable. Cambridge, Mass.: ΜΓΓ Press. Dell, F. 1973 Les règles et les sons. Paris: Gallimard.

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Edgerton, F. 1934 Sievers' Law and IE weak-grade vocalism. Language 10, 235-265. 1943 The Indo-European semivowels. Language 19, 83-124. Goldsmith, J. 1989 Licensing, inalterability and harmonic rule application. CLS 25, 145-157. Hale, M. 1995 Prosodie structure, syntax, and meter in the language of the Rigveda. Handout from the NELS 26 meeting. Halle, M. & J.-R. Vergnaud 1987 An essay on stress. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Harris, J. 1990 Segmental complexity and phonological government. Phonology 7, 255-300. Harris, J.W. 1985 Syllable structure and stress in Spanish: a nonlinear analysis. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Hayes, B P. 1986 Inalterability in CV phonology. Language 62, 321 -51 Ito, J. 1986 Syllable theory in prosodie phonology. PhD dissertation. Amherst: University of Massachusetts. Published by Garland Press, New York 1988. Itô, J. & R.A. Mester 1993 Licensed segments and safe paths. In C. Paradis & D. Lacharité (eds.), Constraint-based theories in multilinear phonology, Canadian journal of linguistics 38, 127-153. Kiparsky, P. 1971 Metrics and morphophonemics in the Rig Veda. In M. Brame (ed.), Contributions to generative phonology, Austin: University of Texas Press, 171-200. 1973 The inflectional accent in Indo-European. Language 49, 794-849. 1982 The Vedic and Paninian accent. In P. Kiparsky (ed.), Some theoretical problems in Panini 's grammar. Poona: Bhandakar Oriental Research Institute, 55-76. 1983 The lexical phonology of Vedic accent. Ms. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kurylowicz, J. 1928 Quelques problème métrique du Rigvéda. Rocznik Orjentalistyczny 4, 196-218. 1948 Contribution à la théorie de la syllabe. BPTJ 8, 80-114. Lindeman, F.O. 1965 La loi de Sievers et le debut du mot en indo-européen. Norsk tidskrift flir sprogvidenskap 20, 38-108. Lombardi, L. 1991 Laryngeal features and laryngeal neutralization. PhD dissertation. Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts. Marchand, J.W. 1958 Sievers' Law and a rule of IE syllable formation. General linguistics 3, 73-84.

M arotta, G. 1988

The Italian diphthongs and the autosegmental framework. In P.M. Bertinetto & M. Loporcaro (eds.), Certamen phonologicum. Torino: Rosenberg and Sellier, 399-430. McCarthy, J.J. & A S. Prince 1993a Prosodie morphology I: Constraint interaction and satisfaction. Technical report #3, Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science. [To appear, ΜΓΓ Press ] 1993b Generalized alignment. In G.E. Booij & J. van Marie (eds ), Yearbook of morphology 1993. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 79-153.

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Murray, R.W. 1988 Phonological strength and Early Germanic syllable structure. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Murray, R.W. & Th. Vennemann 1983 Sound change and syllable structure in Germanic phonology. Language 59, 51428.

Myers, S. 1991 Persistent rules. Linguistic inquiry 22, 315-344. Osthoff, H. 1884 Zur Geschichte des Perfects in indogermanischen, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Griechish und Lateinisch. Strassburg: Trübner. Paradis, C. 1988a On constraints and repair strategies. The linguistic review 6, 71-97. 1988b Towards a theory of constraint violations. McGill working papers in linguistics 5, 1-43. Romani, C. & A. Calabrese in press Syllabic constraints in the phonological errors of an aphasie patient. Brain and Language. Rosenthall, S. 1994 Vowel/glide alternations in a theory of constraint interaction. PhD dissertation. Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts. Sarma, V.J. 1994 Accent and ablaut in Vedic. Ms. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Saussure, F. de 1889 Sur un point de la phonétique des consonnes en indo-européen. In Receuil de publications scientifique, Geneva 1922: Sonor, 420-432. Schein, Β. & D. Steriade 1986 On geminates. Linguistic inquiry 17, 691 -744. Schindler, J. 1977 Notizen zum Sieverschen Gesetz. (Review of E. Seebold Das System der indogermanische Halbvokale, Heidelberg. 1972) Die Sprache 23, 56-65. Seebold, E. 1972 Das system der Indogermanischen Halbvokale. Heidelberg: Winter. Selkirk, E.O. 1982 The syllable. In H G. van der Hülst & N.S.H. Smith (eds.), The structure of phonological representations (part II), Dordrecht: Foris. Sievers, E. 1878 Zur Accent- und Lautlehre der Germanischen Sprachen, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 5. Halle: Niemeyer. Sloan, Κ. 1991 Syllables and templates: evidence from Southern Sierra Miwok. PhD dissertation. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stampe, D. 1972 A dissertation on natural phonology. PhD dissertation. University of Chicago. Published 1980, New York: Garland. 1973 On chapter nine. In M. Kenstowicz & C. Kisseberth (eds.), Issues in phonological theory. Paris: Mouton, 44-52. Steriade, D. 1982 Greek prosodies and the nature of syllabification. PhD dissertation. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1987 Bartholomae's and Grassmann's Laws in Vedic. Class notes, MIT, Cambridge, Mass.

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Gemination and syllabic integrity in Sanskrit. The journal of Indo-European studies, 20.3/4, 283-303. Vennemann, Th. 1988 Preference laws for syllable structure and the explanation of sound change. Berlin: Mouton. Wackernagel, J. 1896 Altindische Grammatik, I. Göttingen: Vandenhoek und Ruprecht. Whitney, W.D. 1868 The Taittirîya Pratisâkhya and Tribhâsyatna. New Haven: Yale University Press, (reprinted Delhi: Motilaal Barnasidass).

Index of authors Abercrombie, D., 670 Abu-Mansour, M., 523 Acs, P. & P. Siptár, 277 Adewyck, W., 22 Alderete, J., 615, 623, 624 Allen, W.S., 285 Alnass, I., 648 Andersen, H., 538 Anderson, J.M., 45, 170 Anderson, J.M. & C.J. Ewen, 27, 114 Anderson, J.M. & C. Jones, 20, 27 Anderson, S C. 450, 460, 474 Anderson, S R., 22, 651 Anderson, S R. : see also DeChene & Anderson Ao, B.X.P., 480 Archangeli, D., 509 Archangeli, D. & T. Langendoen, 648 Arnold, E.V., 724, 725 Ashton, E.O., E.M.K. Mulira & E.G.M. Ndawula, 349 Awedyk, W., 93 Bach, E., 32 Bach, E. & D. Wheeler, 654 Baghemil, B., 18, 25, 252, 274, 409 Bárczi, G., L. Benkö & J. Berrár, 274 Barnwell, T P., 94 Basb0ll, Η , 69, 75, 83, 85-89, 94 Bauer, L., 82 Baumann, M., 42 Beddor, P.S.: see Whalen & Beddor Beijing University, 477, 480, 482 Bendor-Samuel, J.T., 652 Benincà, P. & G. Cinque, 748 Benincà, P. : see also Haiman & Benincà Benkö, L.: see Bárczi, Benkö & Berrár Benveniste, E., 304 Berrár, J.: see Bárczi, Benkö & Berrár Bethge, W. & W. Flechsig, 186 Bhatia, K.C., 95, 100 Bird, S., 447, 651,654

Bird, S. & E. Klein, 473, 654 Bird, S. & M. Tadadjeu, 474 Bird, S.: see also Scobbie, Coleman & Bird Birkeland, H„ 502 Blevins, J., 44, 170, 206, 249, 274, 653 Bolognesi, R., 577, 620 Bolognesi, R.: see also Smith, Bolognesi, van der Leeuw, Rutten & de Wit Booij, G.E., 53, 56, 57, 647, 649 Booij, G.E. & R. Lieber, 61 Booij, G.E.: see also Rubach & Booij Borgstram, CH., 585-589 Borowsky, T., 117, 250, 349, 394, 408 Bosch, Α., 571 Bosch, A. & K. de Jong, 571 Breathnach, R.B., 551 Brekke, K., 648 Brière, E. J., R.N. Campbell & M. Soemarmo, 95, 96 Brink, L„ 69, 83, 88 Brink, L. & J. Lund, 83 Brockhaus, W.G., 23, 44, 169, 219, 230, 236 Bromberger, S. & M. Halle, 27, 349 Broselow, E„ 501, 509, 511, 514-516, 521 Broselow, E., S.-I. Chen & M. Huffman, 514 Bryant, P. : see Goswami & Bryant Burzio, L., 278 Bush, R., 17, 28 Butt, M., 88 Caduff, L., 529-531, 537, 547, 548 Cairns, C„ 45 Cairns, C. & M. Feinstein, 22, 28 Calabrese, Α., 673 Calabrese, Α. & S.J. Keyser, 707 Calabrese, Α. & C. Romani, 677, 737 Calabrese, Α. : see also Romani & Calabrese

754

Index of authors

Cammenga, J., 428 Campbell, R.N.: see Brière, Campbell & Soemarmo Cao, Y., 489 Carr, P., 170, 206 Carstairs, Α., 366, 392 Chalfont, C.R., 187, 200, 209 Chao, 477-482, 490, 494 Charette, M , 125, 126, 130, 131, 137, 138, 160-162, 194, 195, 203, 208, 211, 219, 221, 239, 245, 276, 278 Chatterji, S.J., 745 Chen, S.-I.: see Broselow, Chen & Huffman Chiù, B.-M, 494 Cho, S.W.: see Derwing, Cho & Wang; Derwing, Yoon & Cho Chomsky, N., 19, 69, 738 Chomsky, Ν. & M. Halle, 41, 53, 117, 170, 634 Cinque, G. : see Benincà & Cinque Clayton, M., 20 Clements, G.N., 16, 95, 100, 108, 300, 349, 352, 353, 357-360, 365, 367, 383, 385, 386, 394, 397, 399, 404, 405, 408-410, 420, 452, 507, 518, 571, 584, 586, 589, 617, 677, 737 Clements, G.N. & E. Hume, 485 Clements, G.N. & S.J. Keyser, 26, 36, 37, 95, 96, 250, 251, 352, 578, 737 Clements, G.N. & E. Sezer, 442 Clements, G.N.: see also Halle & Clements Cole, D.T., 349, 352, 363, 406, 408, 412, 427 Coleman, J.S., 202, 349, 457, 473 Coleman, J.S.: see also Scobbie, Coleman & Bird Cyran, E., 219, 208, 552, 559, 571, 585, 586 Cyran, E. & E. Gussmann, 212, 250, 274, 278 Dalgish, G.M., 409, 428 Danis, C. : see Treiman & Danis

Davidsen-Nielsen, N., 83 Davis, S., 33, 34, 37, 45, 118, 249, 250, 274 de Bhaldraithe, T., 551, 571, 605 DeChene, B. & S R. Anderson, 45 Dell, F., 14, 18, 738 Dell, F. & M. Elmedlaoui, 18 Derwing, B.L., 95-100, 107 Derwing, B.L. & T.M. Nearey, 95 Derwing, B.L., S.W. Cho & H.S. Wang, 96, 97, 99, 102 Derwing, B.L., Y.B. Yoon & S.W. Cho, 97 Derwing, B.L.: see also Dow & Derwing; Wang & Derwing Devine, A.M. & L.D Stephens, 307 Diderichsen, P., 75 Diffloth, G., 164 Dijk, E. van: see Smith, Humbert, van Dijk, Eestermans, Fleur, van Gijn, Hulleman & Valstar Ding, B.-Q.: see Read, Zhang, Nie & Ding Dixon, R.M.W., 587 Dogil, G., 209 Dogil, G. & H C. Luschützky, 300 Doherty, C., 559 Dorian, N.C., 586, 627 Dow, M.L. & B.L. Derwing, 96 Downing, L.J., 409, 428 Dresher, B.E., 134, 139, 151 Dresher, B E. & H.G. van der Hulst, 40, 117, 580, 584 Dressier, W.U. & P. Siptár, 276 Duanmu, S., 477, 478, 480, 494 Durand, J., 88 Dziubalska-Kolaczyk, K., 188 Edgerton, F., 738, 739 Eestermans, R.: see Smith, Humbert, van Dijk, Eestermans, Fleur, van Gijn, Hulleman & Valstar Elert, C.-C., 85, 648 Eliasson, S., 634, 648 Elmedlaoui, M., 18

Index of authors

Elmedlaoui, M.: see also Dell & Elmedlaoui Engelenhoven, A. van : see van der Hulst & van Engelenhoven Escure, G.J., 207 Everett, D.L., 577, 579,615 Ewen, C.J. & H.G. van der Hulst, 44 Ewen, C.J.: see also Anderson & Ewen Fallows, D., 95, 107 Fant, G M., 83 Feinstein, M.: see Cairns & Feinstein; Lapointe & Feinstein Féry, C., 207 Fikkert, P., 577, 619, 620 Fintoft, K„ 648 Firth, J R., 651-653, 655, 669 Firth, J R. & B.B. Rogers, 653 Fischer, W„ 502, 523 Fischer-Jergensen, E., 22, 80, 84-86 Fivawo, M., 443 Flechsig, W.: see Bethge & Flechsig Fleur, F. : see Smith, Humbert, van Dijk, Eestermans, Fleur, van Gijn, Hulleman & Valstar Foltin, R., 209 Fudge, E.C., 20, 22, 28, 96, 170, 206, 208, 250, 653 Fujimura, O. & J.B. Lovins, 37, 250 Gao, M. & A. Shi, 491 García-Bellido, P., 577, 582, 593 Gârding, E., 84 Gartner, T., 540 Gauchat, L., 538 Gazdar, G., E. Klein, G. Pullum & I. Sag, 651, 655 Gerster, W„ 538 Giannini, S. & G. Maratta, 302 Giegerich, H.J., 189, 191, 207, 210, 250 Gijn, R. van: see Smith, Humbert, van Dijk, Eestermans, Fleur, van Gijn, Hulleman & Valstar Goedemans, R.W.N., 44

755

Goldsmith, J A . , 41-43, 45, 170, 209, 287, 294, 299, 305, 652, 653, 692 Golston, C. & H.G. van der Hulst, 37, 45, 161 Goswami, U. & P. Bryant, 96 Green, A.D., 571, 572 Greenberg, J H., 62, 563 Grimes, Β.F., 447 Grimm, J. & W. Grimm, 211 Grimm, W.: see Grimm & Grimm Grisch, M„ 539 Guerssel, M., 18, 142 Gussmann, E., 207, 211, 219, 229-231, 242, 245, 559 Gussmann, E. & J.D. Kaye, 204, 208, 212, 245 Gussmann, E. : see also Cyran & Gussmann Guthrie, M., 405 Haiman, J. & P. Benincà, 547, 548 Hajek, J., 538 Hale, M., 747 Hall, T.A., 175, 207, 210 Halle, M., 19, 69, 83 Halle, M. & G.N. Clements, 485 Halle, M. & J.-R. Vergnaud, 21, 23, 96, 207, 349, 404, 578, 740 Halle, M. : see also Bromberger & Halle; Chomsky & Halle; Vergnaud & Halle Hansen, Α., 69, 82, 83, 85 Harris, J., 23, 44, 125, 139, 181, 183, 194, 197, 198, 200-202, 208, 209, 211, 219, 230, 236, 237, 249, 257, 274, 276, 278, 691 Harris, J. & J.D. Kaye, 208 Harris, J. & G.A. Lindsey, 208, 209 Harris, J.: see also Lindsey & Harris Harris, J.W., 299, 563, 740, 741 Hayes, B.P., 21, 29, 30, 33, 34, 44, 87, 119, 132, 135, 207, 250, 276, 308, 373, 404, 406, 507, 534, 738 Haynes, N., 450, 474 Heike, G., 209

756

Index of authors

Heinen-Nasr, R. : see Woidich & Heinen-Nasr Helsloot, K., 117 Henderson, E.J.A., 651, 653, 670 Hendriks, Β.: see van der Hülst, Hendriks & van de Weijer Heny, F. & D. Wheeler, 349 Herbert, R.K., 349, 407 Hirst, D., 37 Hjelmslev, L., 670 Hoard, J.E., 18, 20, 89, 588 Hock, H.H., 29 Hockett, C., 18, 25 Holmer, N , 586, 588, 603, 605, 625 Hooper, J.B., 20, 53, 54, 69, 78, 170, 207 Howie, J., 490 Hu, M., 489 Hulleman, J. : see Smith, Humbert, van Dijk, Eestermans, Fleur, van Gijn, Hulleman & Valstar Hulst, H.G. van der, 14, 15, 21, 23, 31, 3 2 , 3 4 , 3 7 , 4 2 , 44, 119, 127, 129, 132-135, 137, 139, 140, 144, 145, 151, 161, 345, 346,412, 563 Hulst, H.G. van der & A. van Engelenhoven, 14, 45, 161 Hulst, H.G. van der & M.A.F. Klamer, 13, 14, 162 Hulst, H.G. van der & Ν. Α. Ritter, 1, 13, 41-44, 113-115, 118, 158, 159, 161-163, 219, 316, 323, 344 Hulst, H.G. van der & S. Rosenthall, 44 Hulst, H.G. van der & G. Rowicka, 160, 161, 163 Hulst, H.G. van der & N.S.H. Smith, 19 Hulst, H.G. van der, Β. Hendriks & J.M. van de Weijer, 643 Hulst, H.G. van der: see also Dresher & van der Hulst; Ewen & van der Hulst; Golston & van der Hulst Humbert, H., 609

Humbert, H.: see also Smith, Humbert, van Dijk, Eestermans, Fleur, van Gijn, Hulleman & Valstar Hume, E.: see Clements & Hume Hyman, L.M., 29, 30, 81, 87, 206, 349, 250, 447, 449-451, 453, 457, 458, 464, 474 Hyman, L.M. & F.X. Katamba, 349, 351, 360, 367, 404, 406, 407, 411, 417, 427 Hyman, L.M. & M. Tadadjeu, 447 Hyman, L.M. : see also Katamba & Hyman; Mutaka & Hyman Inkelas, S., 652 Inkelas, S., C.O. Orgun & C. Zoll, 646 Itô, J., 55, 209, 253, 362, 374, 509, 691 Itô, J. & R A. Mester, 572, 652, 670, 691 Itô, J., R A. Mester & J. Padgett, 648 Jakobson, R , 83, 85, 207 Jensen, M.K., 648 Jensen, S., 209 Jones, C., 611 Jones, C.: see also Anderson & Jones Jong, K. de: see Bosch & de Jong Kager, R„ 13, 62, 502 Kahn, D.,20, 21, 170,250 Kálmán, L , 277 Kamprath, C.K., 543, 545, 548 Karl s son, F., 658, 666, 668 Katamba, F . X , 349 Katamba, F.X. & L.M. Hyman, 397, 407 Katamba, F.X.: see also Hyman & Katamba Kawasaki, H.: see Ohala & Kawasaki Kaye, J.D., 17, 18, 24, 28, 41, 45, 63, 114, 117, 123-126, 129, 132, 139, 141-145, 150, 152, 160, 180, 183, 184, 190, 191, 193, 202, 203, 208, 210, 211, 219, 222, 224, 229, 231,

Index of authors

245, 249, 250, 274, 275, 278, 301, 330 Kaye, J.D. & J. Lowenstamm, 23 Kaye, J.D., J. Lowenstamm & J.-R. Vergnaud, 14, 23, 114, 160,219, 249, 272, 274, 276, 278, 442 Kaye, J.D.: see also Gussmann & Kaye; Harris & Kaye Kelkar, A.R., 95, 107 Kenstowicz, M.J., 169, 170, 206, 287, 294, 307, 511 Kenstowicz, M.J. & M. Kidda, 406 Kenstowicz, M.J. & C. Kisseberth, 54, 63, 586 Keyser, S.J.: see Calabrese & Keyser; Clements & Keyser Kidda, M.: see Kenstowicz & Kidda Kimenyi, Α., 428 Kiparsky, P., 207, 390, 412, 413, 692, 695, 724, 725, 738, 739 Kiss, Z., 210 Kisseberth, C.: see Kenstowicz & Kisseberth Klamer, M.A.F.; see van der Hulst & Klamer Klein, E.: see Bird & Klein; Gazdar, Klein, Pullum & Sag Kloeke, W.U.S. van Lessen, 191 Kluge, F., 192,211 König, W., 186, 207, 210 Koreman, J. : see Lahiri & Koreman Kornai, Α., 275, 277 Kouesso, J.-R., 475 Krakow, R.A., 94 Krech, E.-M, 207 Krier, F., 538 Kristoffersen, G., 631, 634, 641, 643 Kubozono, H., 97 Kurytowicz, J., 14, 16, 25, 220, 226, 711 Kutsch Lojenga, C , 63 LaCharité, D.: see Paradis & LaCharité Ladefoged, P., 88, 590

757

Ladefoged, P.: see also Maddieson & Ladefoged Lahiri, A. & Koreman, J., 32, 33, 44 Lakoff, G., 42, 43 Lamontagne, G., 57 Langendoen, T.: see Archangeli & Langendoen Lapointe, S. & Feinstein, M., 22, 28 Larsen, U.B., 89 Lass, R , 179, 207 Lausberg, H., 291, 292 Leeuw, F. van der: see Smith, Bolognesi, van der Leeuw, Rutten & de Wit Leroy, J.: see Waiters & Leroy Leumann, M., 303, 307, 308 Levin, J., 23, 26, 295, 577, 579, 580, 582 Li, F., 479, 480 Liberman, Α., 85 Liberman, M. & A.S. Prince, 20, 163 Lin, M. & J. Yan, 490, 491 Lin, M., J. Yan & G. Sun, 490 Lindeman, F.O., 675, 728, 736 Lindsey, G.A. & J. Harris, 208 Lindsey, G.A.: see also Harris & Lindsey Local, J., 653, 654 Local, J. & R. Ogden, 653, 654 Local, J.: see also Ogden & Local Lombardi, L , 533, 708 Lovins, J.B.: see Fujimura & Lovins Lowenstamm, J., 28, 29, 43, 123-125, 139, 143-145, 150, 161, 316, 342 Lowenstamm, J.: see also Kaye & Lowenstamm; Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud Lund, J., 88 Lund, J.: see also Brink & Lund Luo, C. & J. Wang, 490 Luschützky, H.C.: see Dogil & Luschiitzky Lutta, C.M., 539, 541, 542 Macken, M., 405

758

Index of authors

MacLean, C.I., 588 Maddieson, I., 448 Maddieson, I. & P. Ladefoged, 386 Mann, V.A., 96, 99 Marchand, J.W., 703 Marin, D., 286 Maratta, G., 285, 740, 741 Maretta, G. : see also Giannini & Marotta Martinet, Α., 76 McCarthy, J.J., 22, 40, 206, 473, 647 McCarthy, J.J. & A S. Prince, 60, 61, 392, 406, 563, 567, 579, 635, 641, 649, 683, 737 McCawley, J.D., 20, 29, 77 Meeussen, A.E., 370, 379, 393, 397, 405-407, 412 Mehrotra, R.C., 95, 100, 107 Mester, R.A., 308 Mester, R.A.: see also Ito & Mester; Ito, Mester & Padgett Misra, D., 108 Mohanan, T., 107 Molbœk Hansen, P., 69, 82, 83 Montreuil, J.-P., 527 Mulira, E.M.K. : see Ashton, Mulira & Ndawula Murray, R.W., 137, 675, 679, 701-703, 739 Murray, R.W. & Th. Vennemann, 679 Mutaka, Ng. & L.M. Hyman, 409 Muthmann, G., 209 Mutonyi, N., 428 Myers, S., 738 Nádasdy, Á. & P. Siptár, 276, 277 Naeff, R : see Smith & Naeff Naïm-Sanbar, S., 523 Nasukawa, Κ., 210 Ndawula, E.G.M.: see Ashton, Mulira & Ndawula Nearey, T.M. : see Derwing & Nearey Nepveu, D., 14, 17, 25 Nespor, M. & I. Vogel, 19, 21, 23, 31, 116, 209, 253

Newman, P., 18, 23 Ni Chiosáin, M., 551, 559, 562, 571, 572, 584-586,611,612 Ni Chiosáin, M. & J. Padgett, 551 Nie, H.-Y.: see Read, Zhang, Nie & Ding Niedermann, M., 301, 308 Nissim, G M., 474 Noske, R., 588 Ó Baoill, C.: see Wagner & Ó Baoill Ó Baoill, D., 552, 571 Ó Cuív, Β., 551 Ó Dochartaigh, C., 551 O Murchú, 586, 605 Ó Sé, D„ 559 Ó Siadhail, M. & A. Wigger, 559 Odden, D., 409, 411,417, 420, 427, 451,452 Odden, M., 417 Oftedal, M., 577, 585-587, 589, 590, 619, 625, 626 Ogden, R. 651 Ogden, R. & J. Local, 651, 652 Ogden, R.: see also Local & Ogden Ohala, J.J., 70, 94 Ohala, J.J. & H. Kawasaki, 300 Ohala, J.J.: see also Ohala & Ohala Ohala, M„ 93 Ohala, M. & J.J. Ohala, 106 Olsson, M., 277 Oostendorp, M. van, 15, 33, 43, 60, 162 Orgun, C . O , 350 Orgun, C O.: see also Inkelas, Orgun & Zoll 0rum, H., 83 Osthoff, H., 738 Padgett, J. : see Itô, Mester & Padgett; Ni Chiosáin & Padgett Pagoni, S., 195 Palmer, F.R., 651 Pandey, P.K., 95, 107 Panini, 712, 714

Index of authors

Papp, F., 277 Paradis, C., 602, 673, 675 Paradis, C. & D. LaCharité, 374 Paradis, C. & J.-F. Prunet, 209, 299 Peterson, D., 373 Pierrehumbert, J., 655 Piggott, G.L., 163, 507, 509, 510 Pike, E., 37 Pike, K.L., 37, 70 Ploch, S., 210 Polgárdi, Κ., 14, 45, 146, 160, 161, 163 Pollard, C. & I.A. Sag, 473, 654 Porzio Gernia, M.L., 305 Postal, P., 53 Prince, A.S., 32, 490, 494, 567 Prince, A S. & P. Smolensky, 28, 38, 40, 55, 274, 350, 362, 374, 376, 392, 559, 563, 567, 572, 635 Prince, A S.: see also Liberman & Prince; McCarthy & Prince Prunet, J.-F.: see Paradis & Prunet Pulgram, E., 44, 95 Pullum, G. : see Gazdar, Klein, Pullum & Sag Qian, N.: see Xu, Tang, You, Qian, Shi & Shen Rapóla, M., 658 Read, C , Y.-F. Zhang, H.-Y. Nie & B.-Q. Ding, 96, 99 Rebrus, P., 277 Rennison, J R., 37, 180, 209, 311 Revithiadou, Α., 119 Riber-Petersen, P., 85 Rice, K.D., 202, 209, 548, 643, 649 Rifkin, J., 119, 159 Rischel, J., 82 Ritter, Ν.Α., 17, 24, 26, 44, 114, 115, 117, 119, 127, 129, 132, 137, 139, 140, 145, 161, 206, 208, 209, 211, 275-278 Ritter, N A. & R M. Vago, 36, 161 Ritter, N A. : see also van der Hulst & Ritter

759

Roberts-Kohno, R., 428 Robins, R.H., 652, 653 Roca, I.M., 170, 206 Rogers, B.B : see Firth & Rogers Romani, C. & A. Calabrese, 677, 737 Romani, C : see also Calabrese & Romani Rosenthal, S., 425, 442, 683 Rosenthall, S.: see also van der Hulst & Rosenthall Rotenberg, J., 20 Rowicka, G , 16, 144, 145, 155, 160, 161, 246 Rowicka, G : see also van der Hulst & Rowicka Rubach, J., 523 Rubach, J. & G E. Booij, 16, 242, 249, 250, 276, 577 Rumyanceva, I.M., 107 Rutten, J. : see Smith, Bolognesi, van der Leeuw, Rutten & de Wit Safarewicz, I., 307, 308 Sag, I.A.: see Gazdar, Klein, Pullum & Sag; Pollard & Sag Sagey, E., 425, 571 Sarma, V.J., 695 Saussure, F. de, 712, 713, 746 Sawicka, I., 219 Schadeberg, Th., 407 Scheer, T., 28, 29, 161 Schein, Β. & D. Steriade, 674, 691, 716, 735, 738 Schindler, J., 742, 748 Scholz, H.-J., 207 Scobbie, J.M., 651 Scobbie, J.M., J S. Coleman & S. Bird, 651, 652 Seebold, E., 703, 730, 738, 744 Selkirk, E.O., 16, 20, 22, 33, 45, 96, 175, 207-209, 211, 563, 588, 608, 731, 737 Selkirk, E.O. & T. Shen, 496 Sezer, E. : see Clements & Sezer; Wetzels & Sezer

760

Index of authors

Shattuck-Hufnagel, S., 94 Shaw, P.A., 14, 25, 37, 148, 548 Shen, T.: see Selkirk & Shen Shen, Y. : see Xu, Tang, You, Qian, Shi & Shen Sherer, T., 34, 45 Sherzer, J., 100 Shi, Α.: see Gao & Shi Shi, R.: see Xu, Tang, You, Qian, Shi & Shen Shibatani, M., 20 Sievers, E., 673, 692, 693 Sigurd, B., 71 Simpson, Α., 652 Siptár, P., 249, 277 Siptár, P.: see also Acs & Siptár; Dressler & Siptár; Nádasdy & Siptár Sjoestedt-Jonval, M.-L., 571 Sloan, Κ., 678 Smalley, W.A., 164 Smith, Ν.S.Η., 26,577 Smith, N.S.H. & R. Naeff, 592 Smith, N.S.H., R. Bolognesi, F. van der Leeuw, J. Rutten & H. de Wit, 577 Smith, N.S.H., H. Humbert, E. van Dijk, R. Eestermans, F. Fleur, R. van Gijn, J. Hulleman & M. Valstar, 592 Smith, N.S.H.: see also van der Hülst & Smith Smolensky, P.: see Prince & Smolensky Snoxall, R.A., 372, 403, 404, 407, 408, 413 Soemarmo, M. : see Brière, Campbell & Soemarmo Sommer, Β., 587 Sommer, F., 307 Spaelti, P., 572 Spang-Hans sen, H., 75, 80 Speas, M.J., 579 Spencer, Α., 170, 206 Sprigg, R.K., 651, 652

Stampe, D., 738 Stephens, L.D.: see Devine & Stephens Steriade, D., 210, 249, 251, 299, 444, 489, 563, 695, 696, 707, 709, 730732, 735 Steriade, D.: see also Schein & Steriade Stevick, E.W., 349, 363, 406, 427 Stump, G.T., 366, 410 Sun, G.: see Lin, Yan & Sun Svantesson, J., 148-152, 154-156 Szigetvári, P., 209 S zule, Α., 207 Tadadjeu, M. : see Bird & Tadadjeu; Hyman & Tadadjeu Tang, Ζ.: see Xu, Tang, You, Qian, Shi & Shen Tao, Y., 478 Tekavcic, P., 286 Tenge, JA., 443 Ternes, E., 586-588, 598, 625 Thöni, G.P., 548 Thornton, Α.-M., 54 Törkenczy, M., 249, 250, 275, 277, 278 Torre, E.J. van der, 44, 161 Touratier, C., 307 Tranel, B., 33, 121, 588, 683, 686 Treiman, R., 96, 97, 102 Treiman, R. & C. Danis, 95 Treiman, R. & A. Zukowski, 95 Trommelen, M., 14-16 Trubetzkoy, N.S., 29, 85 Tsay, J.S., 494 Tucker, A.N., 349, 352, 357, 363, 397, 406, 409 Vago, R.M., 255, 275, 277 Vago, R.M.: see also Ritter & Vago Valstar, M.: see Smith, Humbert, van Dijk, Eestermans, Fleur, van Gijn, Hulleman & Valstar Vanvik, 648

Index of authors

Varma, S., 93, 95, 100, 101, 706, 713, 715 Vaux, Β., 713, 714, 745, 747 Vennemann, Th., 20, 22, 53, 69, 89, 137, 162, 170, 207, 677, 679 Vennemann, Th.: see also Murray & Vennemann Vergnaud, J.-R., 123-125, 143-145, 150 Vergnaud, J.-R. & M. Halle, 21 Vergnaud, J.-R.: see also Halle & Vergnaud; Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud Vijver, R. van de, 133 Vincent, N., 473 Vineis, E., 307 Vogel, I. : see Nespor & Vogel Vogt, H., 17, 634 Voorhoeve, J., 453 Wackernagel, J., 711,713 Wagner, H., 551 Wagner, H. & C. Ó Baoill, 625 Wagner, J., 70, 73 Walther, M., 202 Wang, H S. & B.L. Derwing, 97 Wang, H S.: see also Derwing, Cho & Wang Wang, J. : see Lou & Wang Wang, L., 480, 481 Waterson, N., 652 Watson, J., 586 Watson, J.C.E., 501 Watters, J R. & J. Leroy, 474 Weijer, J.M. van de, 16, 128 Weijer, J.M. van de: see also van der Hülst, Hendriks & van de Weijer Wetzeis, W.L. & E. Sezer, 45 Whalen, D.H. & P.S. Beddor, 496 Wheeler, D.: see Bach & Wheeler, Heny & Wheeler Whitney, W.D., 713 Wiese, R., 16, 169, 171, 174-179, 183, 185, 186, 191, 202, 203, 206-210, 504, 649

761

Wigger, Α.: see Ó Siadhail & Wigger Williams, G., 210 Wiltshire, C , 349 Wit, H. de: see Smith, Bolognesi, van der Leeuw, Rutten & de Wit Woidich, M., 507 Woidich, M. & R. Heinen-Nasr, 523 Woo, N., 480, 490, 491 Wurzel, W.U., 207 Xu, Β., 477, 489 Xu, Β., Ζ. Tang, R. You, N. Qian, R. Shi & Y. Shen, 493, 494 Yan, J.: see Lin & Yan; Lin, Yan & Sun Yip, M., 56, 57, 405, 480, 519 Yoon, Y.B.: see Derwing, Yoon & Cho Yoshida, S., 24, 126, 127, 129, 130, 161, 219, 325 Yoshida, Y., 119 You, R. : see Xu, Tang, You, Qian, Shi & Shen Yu, S.-T., 191,207,210 Yuan, J., 477 Zamboni, Α., 286 Zee, D„ 32, 36, 389, 522, 534-536 Zhang, Y.-F.: see Read, Zhang, Nie & Ding Zhu, X., 479 Zirin, R.A., 307 Zoll, C., 373 Zoll, C.: see also Inkelas, Orgun & Zoll Zonneveld, W., 58 Zukowski, Α.: see Treiman & Zukowski Zwicky, A.M., 366

Index of languages Albanian, 577 Arabic, 17, 22, 62, 96, 130, 140-142, 320, 322, 501, 502, 516, 521 Cairene, 140, 501 Iraqi, 516 Makkan, 516 North, 501 San'anT, 501 Syrian, 516 Baltic languages, 577 Bamileke, 447, 449, 453, 460, 474 Bangangté, 453 Dschang, 447 Fe'fe', 449, 451, 457, 464, 474 Proto-Bamileke, 457 Banawá, 578 Bantu languages, 349, 417, 420, 422, 423, 425-427, 430, 432, 437, 444 Proto-Bantu, 393, 398, 408 Bella Coola, 18, 252, 274 Berber, Imdlawn Tashlhiyt, 18 Bukusu, 428, 430 Catalan, 527 Celtic languages, 577 Chinese, 477 Fuzhou, 478 Mainstream Shanghai, 477 Standard Mandarin, 477 Taiwanese, 494 Wu dialects, 494 Cuna, 100 Danish, 69, 70, 73-76, 78-89, 538, 670 Copenhagen Danish, 69, 79, 88, 89 Desano, 63, 142 Dolomitic Ladin, 547 Dravidian languages, 107 Dschang, 477 Dutch, 14-17, 23, 32, 33, 43, 44, 53, 137, 138, 156, 162, 538, 577, 61 Ιό 13, 619, 624, 626, 627, 643, 647

Substandard Dutch, 613, 626, 627 Western Dutch, 613 Ekoti, 444 Elomwe, 444 English, 17, 19, 20, 22, 28, 36, 53, 56, 86, 93, 95-99, 101, 103-106, 108, 123, 128, 138, 141, 147, 156, 159, 160, 161, 163, 171, 172, 186, 189, 190, 194-197, 199, 200, 206, 210, 211, 220, 224, 250, 262, 290, 302, 329, 346, 481, 496, 565, 578, 580, 583, 584, 588, 611, 612, 616, 625, 643, 652, 670 American English, 538, 625 British English, 184, 611 Liverpool English, 200, 620 London English, 200 New York City English, 200 pidgin English, 469 RP, 580, 581 Scottish English, 611, 612, 625, 627 Finnish, 651 Franco-Provençal, 538, 543 French, 26, 61, 78, 83, 86, 89, 121, 122, 160, 190, 194, 195, 200, 289, 292, 306, 320, 322, 329, 340, 470, 471, 675, 681, 683, 685, 686, 726, 737 Bamileke French, 471, 474 Saint-Etienne, 195 Standard French, 195 Friulan, 547 Gaelic, 577 Applecross, 587, 588, 598 Barra, 584-589, 617, 624 East Perthshire, 605, 608, 621, 622, 626 Irish Gaelic, 585, 586, 611, 624 Islay, 588, 589, 603, 605, 624, 626 Leurbost, 577

764

Index of languages

North-Western dialects, 585 Outer Hebrides, 584, 586 Scottish Gaelic, 571 Georgian, 17, 28 German, 70, 86, 137, 160, 162, 169, 220, 254, 302, 329, 346, 531, 533, 538, 540, 643, 652 Low German, 186, 188 Middle High German, 186, 192, 207 New High German, 186, 188, 192, 210 Northern Standard German, 173 Old High German, 192, 207 Germanic languages, 56, 78, 189, 538, 577, 649, 675, 701 Proto-Germanic, 538 Goidelic, 611 Gothic, 176, 538 Grassfields Bantoid, 474 Proto-Grassfields, 458 Greek, 73, 86, 290, 297, 299, 303, 577, 678 Ancient Greek, 184, 249, 289 Classical Greek, 678 Modern Greek, 195 Gur languages, 142, 311 Haya, 409 Hindi, 34, 93 Hua, 190 Hungarian, 14, 17, 24, 161, 249 Indian languages, 496 Indo-Aryan languages, 95, 107 Indo-European languages, 538, 673 Proto-Indo-European, 701 Irish, 551, 626 Cois Fhairrge, 605 Kunjen, 587 Manx, 626 Old Irish, 552, 590, 597, 623 Italian, 54, 85, 87, 89, 117, 141, 184, 190, 249, 289-292, 301, 304, 306, 307, 527, 538, 678, 690, 691, 737, 740, 741, 748

southern dialects Milanese, 547 Japanese, 24, 97, 104, 119, 142, 157, 449, 572, 652 Jita, 428 Kammu, 115, 143, 145, 148-151, 154157, 159, 164 Kihehe, 417 Kikamba, 428, 430, 444 Kikerewe, 409, 423, 425-427, 430 Kikuria, 428 Kimatuumbi, 417, 420, 422, 423, 430, 451,452 Kinande, 409 Kinyarwanda, 428 Kirundi, 379 Klamath, 533 Konkani, 108 Korean, 96, 97, 99, 104, 195 Koromfe, Western, 311 Koya (Dravidian), 34 Kwakiutl, 32 Lacustrine languages, 423 Latin, 86, 206, 254, 285, 528, 530, 547 Leti, 14, 45, 161 Limburgian, 210 Lithuanian, 740 Luganda, 349, 417, 420, 422, 423, 427, 430 Luhya, 428, 430 Makonde, 444 Makua, 422, 444 Makuoid languages, 444 Malayalam, 107 Mohawk, 144, 145, 155 Mòoré, 311, 315, 318, 320, 322, 323, 325, 329, 345 Ngiti, 63 Nguni, 422 Niger-Congo, 448, 474

Index of languages

Norse, 538, 598 Old Norse, 648 Norwegian, 84, 85, 87, 89, 631 East-Norwegian, 631 Nuxalk, 18 Nyoro, 396

Tangala, 160 Telugu, 190 Terena, 652 Tundra Nenets, 653 Tunica, 54 Turkish, 26, 141, 146, 652

Occitan, 290 Olutsootsoo, 409 Osean, 289 Passamaquoddy, 119 Polish, 16, 28, 143, 144, 160, 194, 195, 204, 207, 219, 250, 577 Portuguese, 249, 289 European Portuguese, 184 Raeto-Romance, 538 Romance languages, 78, 285, 287, 288, 290, 292, 306, 527, 528, 531, 534, 535, 538 Romansch, 527, 577 Rotuman, 647 Rukiga, 398, 412 Rumanian, 290 Runyankore, 412 Russian, 207 Sanskrit, 93, 95, 100, 210, 249 Classical Sanskrit, 673, 713 Scots, 611-613, 624 Semitic languages, 54, 62, 122, 142 Slavic languages, 220, 254, 577 Spanish, 188, 193, 210, 582, 593, 624, 740, 741 Surmiran, 527, 538, 539, 542, 545, 547-549 Central (Bravuogn), 539 Sursès (Oberhalbsteinisch), 539, 548 Swahili, 369, 404,410,412 Swedish, 82, 84, 85, 87, 89, 533, 631, 634, 648, 653 Taiwanese, 97

Umbrian, 289 Vedic, 673 West Low Saxon, 186 Winnebago, 623 Wolof, 17 !Xöo, 578 !Xu, 578 Yawelmani, 129, 141 Zulu, 190

Index of subjects A-licensing, 197-201, 211, 212 absorption, 399, 405 accented syllable, 588, 591, 593, 602, 603, 605 accidental gaps, 484, 496 adjunction, 27, 28, 122, 128, 150 adjunction to mora, 501, 514, 521, 523 affricates, 175, 183, 184 AL(SEGSYLL), 6 2 2 , 6 2 3 ALIGN, 6 4 1

alignment constraints, 60, 62, 67, 641 allomorphy, 355, 365-66, 373, 380, 391-394, 396-97, 409, 410, 412 allophony, 652 allostems, 392 alphabet, 97, 107, 289 alternating morphemes, 633 alveolar, 74, 76, 81, 82 ambisyllabicity, 42, 57, 97, 107, 674, 675, 683, 685, 701, 703, 715, 716, 723, 735, 737, 745, 757 analytic morphology, 189 anchoring, 122 appendix, 14, 143, 160, 528, 531, 578, 583 articulator dissimilation, 486 articulators, 485, 488, 489, 495, 496 aspirated voiced stops, 449 aspiration, 447, 449, 450, 453, 460464, 467, 468, 472-474 assimilation, 302, 326, 336, 338, 339 association, 329 ATR, 311,320, 325, 326, 345 attribute-value matrices, 653 augment, 363, 407, 411, 412 autosegmental licensing, 197 autosegmental phonology, 287, 361, 661 bimoraic maximum, 350, 351 bimoraic syllable, 350, 351, 356, 360, 370, 374, 383, 384, 396, 402, 410

bimoraicity, 349, 356, 516, 518, 521, 581,603,615, 620, 624 bimoraicity constraint, 515, 516 bimorphemicity, 379 binarity, 15, 17, 25, 27, 34, 39, 1 ΜΙ 16, 120-121, 132, 153-156, 159 binarity principle, 116 bisyllabic minimality, 410 bisyllabic stems, 411 blends, 102, 104, 105, 108 body-tail structure, 22, 29 branching onset, 176, 177, 187, 188, 194, 195, 208, 210, 212 branching, 311, 315, 318, 319, 344 break in tension, 589 canonical form, 408 canonical shape of verbs, 411 causative morpheme, 405 class I derivation, 189, 203 class II derivation, 189, 210 closed syllable shortening, 126, 161, 501, 511-513, 521 closed syllables, 13, 17, 19, 32, 33, 124, 126, 129, 139, 141, 161, 163 clusters, 16, 28, 79, 80, 113, 501, 505, 512, 514-516, 518, 519, 521, 523, 558, 563, 582, 591, 597, 609, 612, 613, 616, 617, 624 medial -CCC- clusters, 260, 269 cluster constraints, 563, 564, 568, 569 coalescence, 355 codas, 22, 24-28, 31-35, 38, 76, 80, 96, 102, 123-127, 131, 132, 137, 141, 143, 149-154, 156-158, 160, 161, 163, 164, 173, 185, 196, 300, 302, 304, 580, 616, 674, 675, 682, 690692, 696, 698, 703, 705, 706, 708711,713,715-719,722, 723, 735, 738, 742, 744-746, 757 branching codas, 266, 267, 270, 273 non-existence of, 344, 347 coda assimilation, 152, 156, 164

768

Index of subjects

coda cluster, 13, 303, 593 coda incorporation, 715, 722 coda licensing, 24, 28, 124, 126, 131, 132, 137, 141, 163, 193-195, 220 coda weakening, 307, 308 coda weight, 32

CV syllable, 362, 368, 374, 376, 379, 380, 396, 408, 410, 491 cyclic syllabification, 377, 382, 384 cyclicity, 349, 362, 377-384, 382, 384, 396, 405

CODACONSONANT, 6 2 0 CODACONTINUANT, 6 2 0 CODANONCONTINUANT, 6 2 0 CODAOBSTRUENT, 6 2 0

Declarative Phonology, 651 degemination, 346, 517 degenerate syllable, 14, 25, 148, 150 deletion, 367, 396, 398, 404, 411 demarcative and extensional, 652

compensatory lengthening, 29, 30, 35, 36, 161,351-353, 367,386,402, 404, 408, 417, 422-425, 428-431, 442, 444, 494 competence, 285 complexity, 182, 209 complexity condition, 182, 183, 187, 204 complexity parameter, 249 complexity slope, 187 consonant gemination, 631, 633, 634, 636, 645 consonant gradation, 82 consonant mutation, 551-553 consonantal strength, 300 constituent structure, 577, 578 constraints, 13, 20, 23, 28, 38, 39, 42, 149, 159, 160, 294, 302-306, 362, 365, 381-384, 400, 651, 652, 656, 658, 663, 665, 666, 669, 674-678, 688, 690, 702, 708, 735-737, 757 constraint-hierarchy, 578 contour simplification, 407 contrast, 669 cophonologies, 645-647 copula, 367, 407 core syllable, 14, 36, 43, 95, 100, 174, 183 coronal fricatives, 355 coronal syndrome, 299, 302 correptio iambica, 297, 308 correspondence constraints, 66 CV framework, 352, 357, 404 CV prefix, 371, 379, 380, 392, 395, 398

DEP-IO, 6 0 9 , 6 1 0 , 6 1 4 , 6 1 9

Dependency Phonology, 27, 114 dependent, 582, 584, 608 derivation, 251, 349, 350, 356-358, 360, 365, 366, 373, 374, 376, 378, 384,391,399,402,410,411 derivational morphology, 505 Devanagari, 97, 101, 102, 107 devoicing, 533, 542 diachronic, 402, 412 diacritic marking, 272 dialectal affrication, 413 diphthongs, 290, 292, 296, 297, 311, 323, 325, 339, 340, 343, 344, 469, 470, 471, 545, 547, 605, 608, 627, 658, 659, 662-664, 741 diphthong shortening, 513 diphthongization, 290, 577 direct mapping approach, 400 dissimilation, 62, 332, 333, 337, 346, 651, 652, 655, 659, 661, 665, 668, 669 domains, 69, 70, 77, 78, 83, 87 analytical domains, 257 syllabification, 257 - of contrast, 652 domain-final empty nuclei, 194, 200 domain-final licensing, 141, 142, 163 duration, 439, 440, 648 early phonological processes, 533, 537, 546, 548, 549 eclipsis, 553, 555, 557, 558 edge effect, 267

Index of subjects

elision, 353 emergence of the unmarked, 40 empty category principle, 121, 125, 140, 190, 191, 202-206, 208, 211 empty constituents, 311,316 filling of, 311 sandwiches, 316, 335, 336, 339, 344 empty nuclei, 14, 25, 34, 36, 44, 45, 125, 126, 130, 131, 140, 141, 143146, 152, 160-162, 164, 190, 220, 264, 272, 273,311,312,315-317, 319, 320, 322-336, 339, 341-346 empty rhymes, 17 enclitic, 401, 404 epenthesis, 256, 260, 271, 277, 501, 506, 508, 509, 513, 515, 516, 518, 521-523, 559-572, 577 epenthesized cluster, 595 epenthetic stems, 255, 275 epenthetic vowel, 551, 560, 564, 567, 577, 583-586, 601, 603, 613, 623625, 637 exceptions, 646 experimental phonology, 96, 97, 102, 104 exponency, 655 expressions, 182 extrametricality, 373-375, 378, 381, 390, 391, 409, 411, 412, 502, 503, 507, 635, 643, 645 extraprosodicity, 14, 194 extrasyllabicity, 14, 16, 17, 176, 177, 503, 504, 511, 521, 578 faithfulness, 28 feature geometry, 485, 487 features, 288, 297 feet, 13, 21, 23, 24, 31, 114, 115, 1 Π Ι 19, 132, 134, 135, 149, 154, 155, 162, 656, 657 fester Einsatz, 207 fieldwork, 473 filling (of empty constituents), 311, 322, 329, 334, 341, 344, 345 final consonant extrametricality, 634

769

final devoicing, 57, 59, 64, 173, 174, 177, 178, 193, 196-198, 200, 201, 205, 207, 208 final empty nucleus parameter, 190, 199, 200 final licensing flat, 96, 102, 104, 106 foot, 578, 615, 626, 627 FOOTBIN, 648 formative, 361, 379, 381, 382 frication process, 399 fricatives, 293 full syllables, 478, 479, 490, 492, 496 fusion, 312 Ganda Law, 370, 407 geminates, 30, 32-37, 44, 45, 129, 131, 137, 142, 163, 164, 266,302,311, 335-338, 346, 350, 351, 357-359, 365, 370, 372, 385, 386, 389, 394, 395, 397, 398, 400, 402, 403, 406410, 412, 604, 609 - as moraic, 402 gemination, 395, 397, 398, 400, 405, 409,412,413,417, 435 in Luganda, 397 geminator, 394, 400 gender, 647 generator (GEN), 38, 41, 579, 581, 584, 648 ghost /y/, 371 glides, 75, 76, 81, 82, 302, 350, 352, 353, 355, 367, 368, 402, 405, 407, 408, 424-426, 443, 527, 529, 534, 538-545, 547, 548, 673, 675, 702, 704-706, 710, 732, 734-738, 740, 745, 757 glide formation, 419-421, 423-425, 444, 466, 674, 675, 681-683, 702, 703, 717, 718, 722, 723, 725, 726, 736 glide insertion, 683 gliding, 351-353, 355-367, 369, 373, 386, 392, 396, 402, 404, 405, 407, 408, 412

770

Index of subjects

glottal stop, 588, 589, 603, 625 government, 14, 16, 18, 22-29, 34, 35, 38, 3 9 , 4 1 , 4 2 , 44, 114, 119, 120, 123-128, 130-132, 135, 139-142, 144, 147, 155, 160, 323, 330, 332, 333 minimal c-command, 119, 120, 128 proper government, 29, 125, 140, 144, 160, 161, 190, 191, 203, 204, 205,211,221,223 strict directionality, 127 strict locality, 127 government phonology, 14, 16, 18, 2229, 34-36, 38, 39, 41-44, 114, 115, 117, 119-128, 132, 140, 141, 143145, 160, 169, 179-191, 193, 194, 196-199, 202, 203, 205, 206, 208, 209, 212, 219, 251, 253, 254, 264, 272, 274, 275, 278, 301, 311, 315321, 323-325, 327, 328, 330, 332335, 342-344, 585, 586 constituents in government phonology, 180 elements in government phonology, 181, 320, 322, 328, 329, 340, 341, 343-345 ambient I, 335 governing relations, 211 government licensing / license to govern, 126, 127, 130, 204, 239 GPSG, 655 grammatical morphemes, 365 H plateau, 361 h-aspiré, 26, 122, 147 hardened consonants, 402 hardened, 370, 395, 402 hardening, 371, 400, 402 after a nasal, 371 Harmonic Phonology, 305 harmony, 294 heads, 96, 102, 180, 580, 627, 654 head feature, 663 head orientation, 132 head-body structure, 22

head-coda, 96, 102, 104, 105, 106 head-feature convention, 655 head/dependency principle, 115 head/dependent relations, 44, 114, 116, 120, 134, 136 headedness, 15, 22, 23, 26, 27, 114, 115, 121, 132, 143, 152, 654, 656 heavy syllable, 409, 477, 478, 495 height harmony, 405 HFC, 655, 659, 663, 665 hiatus, 269, 297, 417, 589, 590, 600, 685, 687, 700, 726, 736, 737, 746 constraints against - , 681, 700 hierarchy of constraints, 385 high tone, 591, 593,627 high vocoids, 673, 683, 692, 702, 704, 705, 717, 725, 726, 729, 730, 732, 735-737, 742, 744-747 high vowels, 528, 534, 535, 544, 547, 673, 675, 685, 725, 736, 757 HL tonicity, 407 hybrid models, 36, 37 iambic shortening, 297 indeterminacy, 490 infinitive, 355, 359, 370, 371, 398, 402, 405 inflectional classes, 647 input, 28, 3 9 , 4 1 , 4 3 , 45, 159 inter-constituent licensing relations, 181,209,211 interaction of constraints, 374 interlude, 76, 81 interonset government, 203, 221, 229 intervocalic, 13, 93, 587, 589, 590, 604, 622 intonational features, 363 intra-constituent licensing relations, 180, 181 intralevel rules, 41 intuitions, 585, 590, 591, 625 labial dissimilation, 465 labial, 74, 77, 80 labialization, 353

Index of subjects

labiodental fricatives, 355 labiovelars, 293, 299, 302 Lachmann's Law, 305, 308 laryngeal neutralization, 674, 713, 716 laryngeal ized vowel, 479 laterals, 88, 293 lax sonorant, 593, 598, 609 leftward spread, 353, 357, 386, 398, 400 length, 477 lengthening under stress, 479 lengthening, 363, 364, 379, 385, 386, 389, 403, 404, 409, 585, 591, 604, 619, 621 lenition, 553, 554, 557, 571 levels, 13, 17, 20, 21, 24, 26, 27, 31, 3 4 , 4 1 , 4 2 , 44, 45, 113, 115-117, 120, 122, 123, 128, 133, 135, 155, 156, 159, 162 intermediate levels, 41, 128 lexical level, 43, 45, 117 phonological levels, 41 surface level, 41 underlying level, 41, 45 lexical marking of stress, 635 lexical model, 391 Lexical Phonology, 169, 174, 189, 191, 210, 390, 410 lexical, 529, 534, 536, 545, 549 lexicon optimization, 40, 55, 56, 59, 66, 648 lexicon, 474 licensing, 180, 208, 209, 255, 264, 271, 273, 274, 311, 321, 322, 330-333, 336, 343, 346 licensing inheritance, 197, 212, 230 licensing mechanisms, 38, 114, 115, 117, 125, 139, 140, 149, 159 licensing paths, 197 licensing potential, 181, 196-201,211, 212 licensing principle, 180, 193-197, 209, 211 licensing relations, 41, 122, 131, 133, 134, 138, 148, 155, 159, 160, 163,

771

180-182, 184, 189, 190, 197, 198, 202, 205, 208, 209, 211 light syllables, 206, 477, 478, 495 lingual consonants, 399 linking constraint, 738 loanwords, 94, 100,448, 449, 469, 471, 505, 522, 666 lower register tone, 480 M-level (morpho-phonemic level), 42 magic licensing, 140, 143, 211, 224 major articulator, 485, 489, 496 major syllables, 148, 149, 151-153, 156 markedness, 676, 678, 708 markedness principle, 40, 41 marking statements, 677, 678, 708 MAX-IO, 614-619 medial moras, 362, 383 melody, 312, 317, 318, 321, 322, 325327, 329-331, 333, 334, 336, 339, 341, 342, 344, 346 licensing of, 321, 322, 331, 336 metathesis, 471 metrical theory, 21 minimal pairs, 287, 292 minimal sonority distance, 563 minimization of structure, 410 minor articulators, 489, 496 minor syllables, 115, 145, 148-153, 155, 156, 158, 164 monomoraicity, 350, 351, 362, 367, 380, 388, 389, 396, 411 monophthongization, 306, 705 monostratal, 41, 43, 114 mora, 19, 29-37, 44, 85, 86, 353, 356, 357, 359-361, 364, 367, 369, 374376, 378-380, 384-391, 393, 398400, 402-404, 406-412, 417, 423, 428, 431-433, 435-437, 442, 443, 461-464, 466, 469, 472, 578, 604, 617 vocalic-, 356, 357, 358, 402 mora bearing nasal, 408 mora truncation, 367, 369

772

Index of subjects

mora-building, 534, 544 moraic analysis of Luganda, 352 moraic consonant, 635 moraic expansion, 632, 645, 647, 648 moraic framework, 30, 31, 33, 36, 45, 353, 386, 406, 409, 493, 507, 534, 543, 545, 548, 634 moraic licensing, 376, 409 moraic loss, 369 moraic trochee, 643, 645 moraic, 350, 352, 353, 357, 358, 361, 363, 369, 370, 375, 382, 383, 385387, 390, 404, 406, 409, 410 morphemes, 352, 356, 368, 372, 380, 382, 385, 392, 404, 405, 407 morpheme boundary, 303 morpheme structure conditions, 53, 58, 60, 66, 67, 98 morphemic structure of prefixes, 378 morphological concatenation, 537 morphological context, 349 morphological process, 373 morphological rule, 366 morphological structures, 396 morphology, 292, 329, 345, 349, 350, 361, 391 morphophonemic alternations, 447, 473 nasalization, 312, 313, 326, 332, 345 nasals, 2 9 4 , 3 1 4 , 3 1 5 , 3 3 3 , 3 4 6 syllabic, 311, 313, 318, 325, 333335, 346 moraic, 363, 375, 385-387, 390, 410, 433 natural Principles of Syllabification, 78 negative paradigm, 381 negative relative marker, 381 negative, 355, 379-382, 404, 410

non-epenthesizing forms, 568 non-mutation environment, 552, 553, 555, 556, 571 noun stem, 354, 394 nuclear structure, 740 nuclearity, 529, 536 nuclei, 14, 22-26, 29, 36-38, 44, 45, 117, 122-126, 129-133, 137-139, 141, 142, 144-146, 148, 150, 152156, 160-163, 180, 292, 295, 296, 320, 580, 608 audible, 25, 126, 130, 132, 137, 155 inaudible, 155, 160 unlicensed, 195 nucleus incorporation, 696, 705, 745 NUCLEUSCONTINUANT, 6 1 9 NUCLEUSSONORANT, 6 1 9

object marker, 366 obligatory contour principle, 62, 406, 421,443 obligatory onset, 480 obstruent, 72, 75, 77, 85 Occam's razor, 179 onsets, 14-19, 23, 25-29, 35-37, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45, 73, 80, 81, 96, 102, 115, 122-124, 128, 131, 132, 135, 137, 138, 141-143, 146-149, 152-154, 158-161, 163, 164, 180, 292, 293, 298, 417-419, 421, 423, 425, 428, 435, 439-442, 444, 529, 530, 551558, 571, 580 branching - , 13, 16, 22, 28, 29, 36, 37, 39, 40, 123, 125, 135, 139, 143, 144, 150, 152, 157, 161, 163, 254, 273, 298, 673-675, 677, 680, 683, 684, 702-706, 710, 712, 713, 718720, 722, 723, 726, 730-732, 734738, 747, 757 s t r a y - , 16, 17

NO CODA, 6 3 7 NOV:, 638

ONSET, 6 3 7

non-alternating morphemes, 633, 634 non-analytic domain, 117, 153, 160 non-concatenative morphology, 54 non-derivational framework, 253, 275

onset first principle, 95-101 onset incorporation, 678, 679, 681, 682, 685-687, 689, 701, 703, 719, 720, 722, 726, 737

Index of subjects

onset licensing principle, 193 onset weight, 44 onset-nucleus interactions, 463 onset-rhyme structure, 102, 104, 105 onsetless moras, 410 onsetless syllable, 362, 363, 368, 374376,412 optimal syllable, 362 Optimality Theory, 28, 38, 274, 275, 362, 363, 375, 376, 392, 559, 563, 572, 627, 629, 631, 635, 645, 649, 650 oral closure, 74, 88 order class, 71-75, 88 orthography, 94, 99, 101, 102, 106-108 output, 39-41, 43, 45, 159, 350, 356, 359, 361, 363, 365, 367, 373, 375378, 386, 393, 396, 398, 399, 402, 409 output constraints, 54, 350 P-level, 42 p-licensing, 190, 191, 197, 200, 203, 204 palatals, 75, 77 palatalization, 291, 353, 405, 449, 450, 453, 461, 462, 472-474, 551, 562, 571, 572, 592, 598, 608, 626 paradigmatic relations, 134 paradox, 349, 385, 391 parameters, 21, 28, 38,44, 113, 114, 132, 139, 163, 200, 201 principles and, 38, 113, 114 setting, 40, 42, 114, 115, 141 parametric variation, 200 parasites, 538 parasitic vowel, 577, 582, 593, 596, 597 parse, 374, 380, 3 8 1 , 4 1 0 PARSEMORA(INFOOT), 5 7 8

past tense, 356, 378, 408, 410 peak, 70, 72, 73, 87, 88 peak assignment, 678, 680, 686-689, 698, 725, 726, 742, 744 peripherality principle, 392

773

persistent non-heads, 208, 211 phonematic units, 652, 670 phonemic economy, 481, 482, 490 phonemic indeterminacy, 490 phonemic length, 634 phonetic exponents, 654, 655 phonetic interpretation / phonetic implementation, 28, 41, 42, 118, 122, 129, 138, 145, 155, 160, 652, 653, 655, 657 phonological geminate, 351 phonological strength, 181, 209 phonological weight, 304 phonological word, 115, 118, 119, 159, 656 phonotactic constraints, 95-97, 99 phonotactic hierarchy, 577 phonotactic phonological word, 578, 583 phonotactics, 13, 36, 39, 44, 53, 144, 148, 249, 257, 260, 270, 527, 551, 570 phrasal level, 376 phrase-final filling, 323, 328-330, 332334, 341, 344 polysystemic, 651 portmanteau morpheme, 382 post-nuclear cluster, 593 post-nuclear rhymal position, 185 postlexical, 352, 356, 385, 392, 532, 533, 546 pre-specification, 646 pre-suffix vowel lengthening, 509, 510 preconsonantal nasal, 363, 364, 370, 386, 388 preferred syllable, 376, 382 prefixes, 354-356, 359, 362, 367, 370, 371, 374, 375, 377-381, 384, 385, 390-395, 397-399, 402, 404, 406412 prenuclear glides, 480, 481, 492 prependix, 14 principle of preservation, 374 principles and parameters, 38, 113, 114 privativity, 533

774

Index of subjects

prohibition against VV syllables, 363, 364 projection, 579 projection principle, 202, 325, 342 pronouns, 320, 322, 325, 334, 342 postclitic, 321 proclitic, 314, 315, 320, 321, 325, 334 prosodeme, 634 prosodie constraints, 565, 568, 569 prosodie hierarchy, 20, 23, 30, 31, 36, 117, 122, 123, 162, 250, 577 prosodie licensing, 253 prosodie minimality, 54 prosodie output conditions, 56, 61 prosodie phonological word, 578 prosodie syllable, 578 prosodie templates, 13 prosodie weight, 296, 306 prosodie word, 57 prosodies, 652, 653, 670 prothesis, 193 prothetic gemination, 400, 402 quadrimoraic output, 356 quantitative transfer, 552 quantity, 631 quantity sensitivity, 645 quasi-syllabary, 94, 101 ranking of principles, 240 readjunction, 545, 546 real gaps, 496 recursion, 577, 579, 580, 624 recursive syllable, 582-584, 601-603, 609, 610, 613, 615, 616 redundancy, 636 reduplication, 364, 365, 388, 408, 460, 462, 463, 472 in Sanskrit, 730 reflexive morpheme, 356, 358, 368, 375 reflexive prefix, 356, 365, 372, 375, 384 register, 286, 289, 290, 297, 306

regular inflection, 189, 210 relative clause, 379, 381, 382 relative form, 407 resyllabification, 169, 179, 202, 203, 205, 212, 675, 678-682, 689, 690, 696, 697, 699, 702, 703, 706, 726, 733, 734, 736, 739, 741, 744, 757 rhotacism, 293 rhymes, 96, 102, 173, 180, 188, 305, 448, 453, 459, 460, 462, 463, 472, 473, 474, 481, 577, 580, 582, 588, 591, 593, 611, 613, 618-620 rhyme duration, 491 rhyme inventories, 492 rhyme reduction, 491 RHYMECONTINUANT, 620 rhyming, 481 rhythmic structure, 308 richness of the base, 39, 41, 55 rising tones, 387, 388, 406 root morphemes, 350, 363, 364, 365, 369, 370, 372 root node, 22, 29, 37, 45, 121, MSMS, 152, 164, 371, 373, 389, 412 root, 350, 351, 355, 359, 361, 363-365, 369-374, 378-380, 389, 392, 394, 403-407, 409, 411, 412, 582, 600 rounding, 463-465, 469 rule blocking, 688, 689, 703, 727, 738 rule of referral, 366, 367, 408 rules, 19-21, 23, 33, 41, 127, 128 s+C cluster, 16 sandhi, 78 schwa epenthesis, 178, 202, 203, 205 schwa, 75, 76, 79-83, 87, 88, 311-313, 315, 317, 321-323, 325, 326, 329, 330, 332, 335, 336, 344-346, 577, 581, 615, 617, 630 schwa assimilation, 76, 87, 88 schwa deletion, 101, 108 schwa syllable, 75, 76, 88, 89 second mora, 353, 365, 384, 387-391, 404, 406, 407, 410 segments, 477

Index of subjects

complex segments, 16, 37, 293, 302 semivowel, 291 sharing of information, 654, 655, 665 shortening, 297 sibilant + consonant clusters, 186, 187 sibilant + plosive clusters, 184, 208 sibilants, 300 silent consonant, 589 simplex words, 631, 632, 643, 644 simplification, 265 singleton, 584, 605, 609 skeletal tier, 288 skeleton, 33, 121 snatching, 609, 610, 614 SON2SEP, 613 SONCSEP, 6 1 3

sonorants, 70-72, 88, 293 sonorant cluster, 577 sonority, 69, 70, 75, 80, 87-89, 302, 353, 551, 556, 558, 559, 563 sonority hierarchy, 94, 95, 107, 174, 175, 582 sonority hierarchy principle, 501 sonority scale, 292, 300, 531 sonority sequencing generalization, 174, 175, 207, 220, 242, 254, 518 sonority threshold, 32 SONVSEP, 6 1 3 , 614, 6 1 9

sources of syllable weight, 507 specifier, 26, 123, 161 speech errors, 94, 106 spelling, 285, 294 spoonerisms, 93, 94, 106 spread glottis, 73 spreading, 655, 661-663, 665, 669 stem, 349, 354, 362, 364, 365, 369, 371-374, 384, 388, 390-393, 395, 396, 403, 404, 408, 409, 411, 413 stem phonology, 374 st0d, 69, 84-89 st0d-basis, 84-86 stops, 293 stratum, 349, 365, 369, 378, 385, 390, 391, 393, 396, 411

775

stray erasure, 358, 360, 362, 383, 511, 578 stray erasure convention, 544 strength hierarchy, 303, 304 stress, 21, 24, 33, 93, 106, 107, 118, 133, 144, 163, 300, 478, 490, 494, 496, 506, 510, 516, 522, 523, 631, 633, 635, 636 primary, 24 secondary, 24 stress placement, 631, 635, 636, 642645, 648 STRESSTOWEIGHT, 6 3 7

stress-bearing unit, 23, 44 strict CV theory, 29, 43, 139, 161 strict directionality, 181 strict layer hypothesis, 253 strict locality, 181 structural analogy hypothesis, 27, 114 structural relations domination, 116, 138, 164 sisterhood, 23, 116, 119, 138 structuralism, 634 structure paradoxes, 42 subgrammars, 642, 646, 647 subject cleft marker, 368 subject marker, 354, 365 subordinate, 608 suffricates, 175, 183-186, 188 superheavy coda, 304 superheavy syllable / rhyme, 14, 27, 30, 34, 130, 140, 141, 503, 506, 510, 675, 702, 704 superordinate, 608 suprasegmental features, 20 surface syllable preferences, 362 svarabhakti, 585, 586, 588, 589, 591, 593, 595, 598-603, 609-611, 618, 624-626, 637 syllabary, 105, 107 syllabic consonants, 479 syllabic nasals, 350, 406, 409, 417, 437 syllabic nuclei, 680, 685, 692-694, 717, 734 syllabic repair procedures, 677, 678

776

Index of subjects

syllabicity, 349-350, 353, 363, 387, 409 syllabification, 54, 69, 77-81, 83, 87, 89, 93, 95, 97, 99, 100, 107, 349, 350, 357, 358, 362, 376, 377, 379, 382-384, 391, 393, 396, 397, 402, 405, 408, 410, 412, 501, 507, 521, 579, 581, 586, 589, 624, 625, 628, 629 SYLLABIFYPLACE, 6 2 4

syllable, 13-15, 18-24, 26, 28-31, 3335, 37-39, 41-45, 117, 122, 127, 130, 148-159, 162-164, 294, 349351, 356-364, 366, 368-371, 373376, 379-381, 383-385, 387-392, 396, 404-407, 409-412, 577-584, 586-589, 593, 602-606, 608, 611, 615, 617, 618, 621, 622, 624, 625, 627-629, 637 syllable appendix, 56 syllable as anchor, 20-22, 122 syllable as domain, 17-19, 20, 44, 117, 119, 141-143, 146, 152, 153, 159, 162-164 syllable as part of prosodie hierarchy, 20, 23, 30, 31, 36, 117, 122, 123, 162 syllable boundaries, 69, 76-79, 87 syllable contact law, 137, 737, 744, 757 syllable division, 586, 587, 617, 625 syllable hierarchy, 373, 384 syllable node, 376, 404, 406, 412 syllable organization, 93 syllable schema, 174 syllable structure, 387, 392, 410, 447, 448, 463, 466, 471, 501, 506, 577, 581, 584, 603, 604, 606, 608, 621, 624, 628, 629, 631, 632, 634, 636, 641, 647 flat syllable structure, 253 moraic syllable structure, 253, 274 syllable template, 304, 305 syllable types, 502, 503, 518 VCC, 501, 503, 504, 510, 514

CVCCC, 501, 503, 504, 514, 521, 523 CVVC, 501, 503, 506, 510-514, 521, 523 syllable weight, 23, 295, 632 heavy syllable, 135, 566-568 light syllable, 135, 566, 572 syllable with a complex bimoraic nucleus, 362 syllable-building, 527 syllable-nesting, 582 SYLLABLEINTEGRITY, 5 7 8 , 5 7 9

synchronic phonology, 379, 394, 397, 402 syncope, 501, 512, 514-523, 577, 585, 591, 595, 600-603, 617-619, 675, 689, 690, 695-699, 721, 731, 736738, 741, 743, 757 syntagmatic relations, 116 systematic gaps, 66 systems of contrast, 651 takeover rule, 372, 373 tautomorphemic, 385 tense-lax distinction, 528, 547 tense markers, 366, 378 tenseness, 288 ternary feet, 119, 132 ternary structures, 44, 128, 159 theory of constraints and repair strategies, 602, 673, 675, 748 therapy, 530, 532 tonal evidence, 358, 365 tonal realization, 364, 390 tonality, 585, 591, 593, 601 tone, 360, 388, 389, 403, 406, 417, 432, 433, 435-437, 443, 444, 478, 490, 585, 588, 590, 593, 617, 625, 637 tone bearing unit, 365, 389-393, 407, 410,411 tonicity, 360, 403 trisyllabic words, 565 trochee, 538 truncation, 397

Index of subjects

ultimate head, 117, 145, 153, 159 unbounded feet, 119, 162 underlying forms, 349, 352, 356, 364, 372, 380, 398, 402, 407-409, 634 underlying level, 55, 63-67 underlying long vowel, 351, 356, 364, 368 underspecified, 59, 379, 405, 407, 410, 412 uniform applicability condition, 674, 691, 735, 738 unstable vowels, 255, 268 unstable-^, 369, 370, 372, 373, 376379, 381, 390-393, 395, 396, 398400, 408, 409, 411, 412 upper register tone, 480 velarity, 77 verb root, 351, 354, 359, 361, 364, 366, 369, 370, 372, 374, 380, 381, 388, 389, 391, 392, 397, 408, 410, 411 verb stem reduplication, 364, 371, 388, 411 Verschärfung, 538, 545 vocoid, 70, 88 voice assimilation, 542, 548 voiceless vowels, 449 vowels, 15, 17, 18,31-34,36, 123, 129, 130, 137, 144, 145, 150, 152, 154, 163, 164, 296, 311, 312, 314316, 318, 320, 322, 323, 326, 330, 332, 340, 343, 345 lax, 33, 137, 162, 164 long, 17, 30-34, 36, 45, 120, 121, 127, 129-131, 161-164,311,312, 323, 339, 345, 657, 658 nasal, 314, 321 tense, 33, 162 vowel harmony, 312, 315, 323, 324, 326, 329-333, 340, 344, 345, 652, 656 ATR, 311,320, 325, 326, 345 front/back harmony, 264 labiality, 345

111

palatality, 345 vowel length, 288, 528, 631-634, 636, 642-648 vowel lowering rule, 405 vowel prothesis, 188 vowel quantity, 287, 295, 306 vowel sequences, 419, 421, 442 vowel shortening, 427 vowel-zero alternations, 255 stem-external, 268 stem-internal, 255, 258, 266, 271, 275 VV syllables, 351, 362, 363, 365, 368, 384, 408 W-level, 42 weak syllables, 478, 490-493 weight units, 29, 32 weight, 287, 490, 491, 493, 577, 581 weight-by-position, 31-34, 428, 502, 507, 508, 521, 523 WEIGHT-TO-STRESS, 5 8 2 , 6 1 8

word accent, 82, 84 word edge / edge effects, 13-15, 17, 144, 578 word-level, 117, 133, 155, 159 word-level parameter, 133 X-bar theory, 26, 27 x-slot, 26 y/0 alternations, 350, 363, 393 yers, 220 zero, 256, 268, 272 zero consonant, 480 zero grade, 675, 689, 693-696, 698700, 702, 721, 733, 737, 740-743, 747 zero onset, 479 zero-level head position, 122, 134

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